Since Ares was rather heavy despite his small size, Spike’s arms already felt sore. Thus, he decided not to carry him downstairs, not that Ares minded. Instead, Ares followed him down by foot.

“Hey, Medicham, we’re back.”

“Medicham!” Medicham replied with a salute.

“Just to let you know, I gave Riolu the name Ares. So, Ares, meet Medicham. Medicham, meet Ares.”

“Medi- Medicham!” Medicham greeted with an enthusiastic grin.

“Riolu,” Ares grunted in a short reply.

“Well, now that everyone’s best friends, can you help us train, Medicham?”

“Medicham?” Medicham asked while pointing at its own head.

“Yeah, I want to keep learning how you meditate, but I also want to do some physical training. What do you think?”

Giving what was almost a signature thumbs-up at this point, Medicham smiled and said, “Medicham.”

Later in the afternoon after the three started training, Deidre entered the house. Finding the place empty, she frowned and searched for her nephew. Eventually, she looked outside one of the back windows and raised her thin eyebrows in surprise. There, in the back lawn, she saw her brother’s Medicham instructing Spike and a Riolu through a handmade obstacle course composed of boulders and sloppily felled trees.

“Looks like Dilon’s egg hatched, but what in the world are they doing?”

Deidre walked outside through the back door and heard Spike talking with the young Riolu since they seemed to be taking a short break.

“Hah… Hah… What are you looking at me like that for, Ares? Of course you’re stronger and faster than me right now. I’m still a kid. Just wait a bit, and I’ll catch up to you.”

“Ri.”

“Pft. Don’t believe me? Well, I don’t blame you, but one of my goals is to become the strongest human.”

“Ri,” The Riolu said with a shrug.

“Ow,” Spike grunted as somebody flicked the back of his skull. Medicham snickered at him, and Ares stared at the newcomer with curiosity.

“What are you doing playing on these things, Spike? You might get a sliver or hurt yourself on these rocks.”

“Oh. Hi, Aunt Deidre. I’m training.”

Deidre glanced at the two Pokemon nearby, focused specifically on her brother’s Medicham, and then returned her attention to Spike while adding, “You aren’t a Pokemon, so you can’t train yourself the same way. You might get hurt.”

“Medicham is smart. He knows my limits.”

“Medicham!” Medicham agreed with a nod.

Sighing, Deidre shook her head and decided to set aside the issue since she wasn’t his mother. Instead, she focused a friendly smile at the small Riolu, knelt in front of him, and asked, “So, this is your Riolu? It’s my first time seeing one. Did it hatch today?”

“Yeah. His name’s Ares, by the way.”

“Ares? Well, nice to meet you, Ares,” Deidre said while pulling the Riolu into a hug. “Aren’t you just the cutest little thing? Oh, wow, you’re almost as heavy as Spike.”

Unimpressed with the hug, Ares pushed against Deidre just enough to let her know he was uncomfortable and stared at Spike with dull eyes as though asking for help. In response, Spike grinned and said, “She’s my Aunt, so she’s family.”

Ares stopped pushing against the woman and looked up at her. He stared at her friendly smile before sighing and dropping his arms to allow the woman to hug him.

“Fufufu, cute things deserve all the love in the world. Oh, before I forget, I hope you take good care of Spike in the future, Ares.”

Glancing toward his partner, Ares nodded.

“Now, are you boys hungry?”

Spike, Ares, and Medicham all nodded.

Later in the evening, Mara returned from work and immediately noticed the new addition to the household. Her reaction wasn’t much different from Deidre’s. Ares suffered from a lack of breath within her ample bosom upon falling into her grasp. Once again, he turned to Spike who was sitting on Deidre’s lap for help, but Spike chuckled at his predicament. However, upon seeing how uncomfortable Ares was with extended contact after a few seconds, Spike decided to step in.

“Mom, Ares isn’t really a fan of being smothered like that.”

“Oh,” Mara’s face sank with disappointment as she set Ares back down on the couch and asked, “You already gave him a name?”

“Yeah,” Spike answered.

“Good. Nicknames go a long way in strengthening a bond between a trainer and a Pokemon, but I can never get that through your dad’s thick skull.”

Hearing something about trainers, Ares tilted his head and looked at Spike. Noticing the Riolu’s questioning gaze, Spike decided now was as good a time as any to say, “I don’t want to be a trainer, mom.”

““What?!”” Mara and Deidre exclaimed at the same time with widened eyes. Mara placed her hands over Spike’s cheeks and asked, “You didn’t get scared off from becoming a trainer after going to the woods, did you?”

“No,” Spike replied through squished cheeks, “I think I’ll become a Pokemon Ranger instead.”

Surprised, Mara blinked a few times, and her eyes glazed over while processing her son’s statement. Deidre settled for observing the conversation. Meanwhile, Medicham’s already large mouth widened, and his eyebrows rose. Ares remained quiet since he didn’t understand the conversation.

Eventually, Mara came back to herself, wrinkled her brow, and asked, “I’ve noticed that you’ve finally started acting nicer to Pokemon this last month, but being a Ranger… Are you sure you want to do that? From what I’ve heard, training to become one is a lot more difficult than becoming a league trainer.”

Lips curling upward, Spike confidently answered, “I’m sure.”

“You’ll have to stay in school an extra year, Spike,” Deidre added, drawing a strange look from Mara when she used Spike’s preferred name instead of ‘Dilon’.

Spike shivered at the thought of having to take more useless classes, but said, “I still want to become a Ranger.”

“...Fine. I’ll talk to your father about it, but let’s leave it for another day.”

“Thanks, mom,” Spike replied with a bright smile that made Mara’s heart melt.

Wrapping her arms around her son and pulling him away from Deidre’s chest in the process, Mara grumbled, “When did my little monster become so cute?”

“He’s always been cute,” Deidre interjected.

Rather than listen to unimportant words, Spike focused on the upgrade from soft pillows to ultra-soft pillows. Well, he did feel some warmth in his heart, too. A mother’s warmth was something he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Hit by a wave of nostalgia, he thought back on some memories he had shoved to the back of his mind to be forgotten. The last time he had hugged his mother in his last life was a distant and foggy memory, and it was something he could never experience again even if he returned to Earth since she had been ripped from his life long ago. Without realizing it, tears formed in his eyes. Almost instinctively, he hugged his new mother back for the first time since arriving in this world.

“Eh, is something wrong, Dilon?” Mara asked.

Wiping a few tears on Mara’s shirt, Spike simply smiled and said, “No. Thanks for agreeing… and… I love you…”

Mara blinked, wondering if she had heard incorrectly since his voice had trailed off. Deidre also looked surprised with raised brows, but she quickly settled into a smile.

Feeling her heart flutter a little, Mara smirked at her son and said, “I don’t think I heard you. Can you say that again?

“No. I won’t say it again,” Spike grumbled while burying his face deeper into her chest. May as well take advantage while he had the opportunity.

“Pft. I didn’t know my nephew was such a shy guy,” Deidre said while giggling.

“I’m not shy.”

Ignoring her sister-in-law, Mara pulled Spike up from Deidre’s lap, held him close to her chest, and pleaded, “Come on, say it again, please?”

“No.”

“Aww. You’re making mom sad. You haven’t said that to me since you were two. If you say it again, you’ll make mom happy.”

“Then I won’t say it again at least until I’m ten.”

Mara paled, and Deidre started laughing. Meanwhile, Medicham quietly snickered in the background as though he had found good blackmail material, and Ares tilted his head wondering if he should help his partner out of this vixen’s grasp or not. All in all, it was a rather peaceful evening in Petalburg City. Of course, storms brewed in the background of the world, but the time for Spike to confront those was still a ways off. For now, he enjoyed the simplicity he found within this new life of his.