Chapter Text
You know, when you went to bed last night, you never expected to wake up to the unfamiliar ceiling.
You put a whole bunch of colorful glow-in-the-dark star stickers on your ceiling to fulfill your childhood whimsy.
The ones you're looking at now are all just the typical glow-in-the-dark green.
Now don’t misunderstand, these are just fine too, but…
Your colors…
Not to mention, who had the time to replace these? Your family members don’t usually bother you if they visit while you're asleep…
Stretching your arms up, you’re stopped in your tracks when you realize just how small your hands are right now.
These… Are the hands of a child.
Well, you have the same, deep, rich brown skin tone. One could compare it to the color of roasted coffee beans, but personally you don’t really like that description since you’re not a coffee drinker.
To each their own, though.
Now, where the hell are you?
Taking a more thorough look at your surroundings, you notice that there’s some type of air tank on the ground.
Following the thin plastic tube attached to it, you realize that the a section of said tubes are resting on your face, causing some of it to have to rest on your ears to stay put. Moments later, you also notice that these tubes have small extensions that are slightly up your nose.
You wonder how long you've been sick for.
That’s when you realize that the sounds of your breathing have been accompanied by this device assisting you. Not to mention, your lungs hurt. Each time you try to breathe deeply, a sharp pain assaults your chest.
...Yikes, what the hell did you do?
The device is not too invasive, as the parts that go up your nose don’t go too far. You believe that these are called nasal cannulas. Some of your relatives are in the medical field, so you have some vague spots of medical knowledge. The worst parts of the situation, though, are that you’re tired, sore, have a headache, and feel nauseous.
…Given all of these symptoms, you’re going to go out on a limb and say you caught a horrible case of pneumonia. The difficulty breathing is one thing, but the fever, fatigue, and nausea are another thing entirely. Speaking of, you did once catch it as a child. And from what you could remember that experience was pretty similar... Except you didn’t need the breathing tube.
Yeeup; pneumonia until proven otherwise.
Now that you’ve taken note of your condition, you decide to observe your bedroom in more depth. In the leftmost corner opposite from where you’re laying right now lies your plain wooden door.
Pokémon posters you recognize are occasionally patterned on the sky blue walls, but the issue is that your Tapu Lele poster is gone. Everything else is there, though. Chansey, Hitmonlee, Jigglypuff, Eevee, and Clefairy.
Yep, nearly all there.
A shame about the Tapu Lele poster, though. You liked that one, too.
No use crying over spilt milk, though, because what’s really making you want to cry is this chest pain.
Other than the posters, you do have some Pokémon plushies, which consist entirely of cute pink ones like the ones you have on your posters, and a Mimikyu. Since they had such simple designs, their plushies are objectively the highest quality renditions. ...But your huge, life-sized Chansey plush is missing.
…Damn it…
Then there’s your desk on the left-most side of the room, which is… Surprisingly over capacity. It has your charging laptop, a lamp, and an organizer filled with some writing utensils. Along with that are tons of get well soon notes of varying colors. Like there’s genuinely so many of them? You even see some more plushies mixed in.
You must’ve been popular.
Leaning on the desk chair is your usual black utility book bag, decorated with a few bag charms. More Pokémon, of course. It’s almost all you would talk about when you first discovered it as a kid.
Looking at your desk again, you’re surprised by the different contents on it. Usually you had papers of whatever homework you were doing on there ever since elementary school.
But then again, you are bedridden with a breathing tube stuck ever so slightly up your nose. You don’t think you’d get a lot of work done this way even as your former/yesterday/whatever self. You may be stubborn, but your parents are even more stubborn than you.
Sighing, you stop straining your neck and face the ceiling directly above you. With the current state of your lungs, shouting for your parents (if they’re even here, that is,) is out of the question.
This does leave you with more thinking time, though.
For example, how the hell are you a kid again? You went to bed your normal 18 year old university freshman self in your apartment, and now you’re back in a slightly more outdated, childish version of your bedroom.
Also, how the hell is a child thinking so clearly with a headache? You could do that before you got here no problem, but like… You’ve been turned back into a child, so theoretically, this shouldn’t be possible.
…Eh, you’re not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Now let’s just assume that you’re in a magical bullshit type situation because this pain and sickness feel way too real for this to be a dream. It’s the only possible thing you could think about without getting into horrible existential crisis territory.
At this point, you’re left with little choice but to wait and lay where you are. You feel awful, and some more shuteye would be awesome.
Deciding that that’s enough thinking for now, you try to get more comfortable and close your eyes for a nap.
By the time you’re awake again, the sun is pretty high in the sky, from what you can see in the gap of your blackout curtains.
Moments later, an unfamiliar figure opens the door.
…Who are they? They don’t look malicious, but even before your current predicament, you don’t trust like that.
With some observation, you notice they have a lot of similarities with you.
Their skin tone is just like yours, but their black eyes are a much sharper shape than your droopy ones, and a flat nose with larger nostrils just like yours. They have what you assume to be decently long black hair tied put into many box braids, then those braids are put into a high pony tail.
Must’ve taken forever to braid, those have to be... Like, what, 60cm long braids?
Hairstyles aside, she’s wearing a black t-shirt/sweatpants combo along with a standard white chef’s apron which seems to be stained with fruit juice of some kind.
Also she has… Short elf ears? Just long enough for them to stick out horizontally a little bit.
Neat!
“Hey, sweetie, are you okay?” They gently insert a thermometer in your mouth to check your temp.
Not bad, but not great, either. You sluggishly raise a forearm to give a so-so gesture.
“Here, I’ll sit you up so you can have some water, Vinnie,” …That. Is not your name? You kinda vibe with it, though.
You were gonna legally change your name, but university didn’t give you much time to do much else than changing your ID to your preferred name. Your family’s supportive, but as a legal adult, you have to take care of those kinds of affairs on your own.
“Your fever’s gone down a little, but 38 is still pretty high,” …How the heck are you not cooking alive right now??? You’re a literal child at the moment????
Growing concerned at your confusion, the helpful adult calls out to you a bit more;
“Vinnie? Valentine? Sweetheart?” Valentine? Vinnie must be a nickname, then. You can vibe with that being on your birth certificate.
Your slight relaxation calms them a bit.
“I wish I could just make you get better right now! An 8 year old shouldn’t be struggling with pneumonia, you should be playing with your friends and going to school!” …You’re guessing its due to your headache, but this really is an adult with similar facial features to you.
Are they your guardian? Let’s just start calling out parent names to see which ones they respond to, it’ll test out your voice, too.
“…Mom?” Your voice sounds awful to say the least. You sound super dehydrated.
“Yes, yes, it’s mom. Mamí is out at the moment, she had to get some ingredients for soup. And can you believe she left me on cooking duty for all of our Pokémon!? Well, at least I finally get to spend some time with you now! She's been hogging you all week!” They chirp as they gently raise your torso to adjust your pillow, and your posture along with it.
Wait, did you hear that right? Pokémon?? Are real? Maybe your headache’s getting to you.
“Here’s some water, Vinnie,” She hands you a plastic cup. Well, you probably would've accidentally broken a glass with your current state.
On a less relevant note, drinking water after being super dehydrated has to be like the best and worst experience possible. Best, because the water is so refreshing, and worst, because your throat still stays dry for a while. It’s annoying, to be honest.
“Now, while I can’t have you fully recover right this instant, I can have Powderpuff use Heal Bell to help manage your symptoms,” Cute name? But who’s Powderpuff?
Also Heal Bell is a Pokémon move, further confirming it, and there’s a decent list of those who can learn it. Unless they refer to Powderpuff’s species (assuming Pokémon are actually real all of the sudden,) then you have no clue what they are.
“…Hm, the fever must be making it hard to remember. Here, I’ll call him over,” Your mom steps out, and moments later, you here a muffled shout of;
“Powderpuff! Where are you, fluffball? We need another Heal Bell!” Fluffball?
That eliminates a good few suspects, so it has to be either something from the Wigglytuff or Blissey lines. Hell, it could be an eeveelution, too.
Also, he/him pronouns for Powderpuff, got it! As for your mom, you’re still unsure at this point. Then your other parent seems to have she/her pronouns.
…In fact, what were yours?
...You think you just used any of them, because when you thought about being referred to any of them, you had a neutral response.
While you’re ruminating on that, mom returns, and you hear footsteps quickly slamming against the wooden floor.
…Aren’t eeveelutions like, canonically 20-ish kilos? Whatever Powderpuff is sounds quite a bit lighter than that.
Your thoughts are cut off by a voice ringing loud and clear.
“Wigglytuff!” . . .
Oh, sweet deity, he’s so cuuuuuute!