Y’know, I had a dream about how I met my choice for this awhile back.

>! Basically, I was playing in the woods as an 8 year old when I heard a shriek and went to investigate. A lone shiny Zorua was getting attacked by a bunch of Mothim for stealing food from them. I couldn’t just sit and watch and jumped in with a rock to scare them off. After recovering from the shock, the Zorua noticed me and immediately ran away. I chased after it into its cave and stopped at the entrance. There was nothing in it aside from the berry the Zorua stole. And the Zorua was backed up against the wall, trembling in fear. It fired off a dark pulse that didn’t do anything to me. I got on my knees and began to start talking at it. I was talking about my day and how I wanted to make sure the Zorua was okay until eventually the Zorua stopped trembling and began to approach meekly. From the attack it let off and the fact that it was so small meant that it was very young. I asked where it’s mother or father was… and silence. I offered it a Pecha berry I had I my pocket and it quickly snatched it and ate it up.

 I spent another hour or two just hanging out and said goodbye and went back to my grandparents house. Little did dream me know, the Zorua was following me back. Once I got to the front door and said I was back, I saw the Zorua just sitting in the doorway. My grandma saw and asked if this is why I took so long to come back and went to check on it. It backed away for a second but stopped to let her get close enough to check on it. My grandma said it was no wonder it followed me back, because the poor thing had been starving. My grandma left the room and the Zorua ran to me and was just lightly jumping at me until I picked it up. I walked to the kitchen where I saw my grandma getting two bowls out and ready, one full of water and the other full of leftover chicken (torchic?) and small berries. The Zorua was wriggling in my arms until I put it on the ground and let it eat. As it ate my grandma asked me what happened as my parents and grandpa entered the room after hearing the commotion and I explained everything. 

 My parents were upset that I had left the area they told me to stay in and about how I just let it follow me back. I was told to go to my room until morning. Later that night, I heard scratching on the door. I opened it and it was the Zorua, who ran in and jumped on the bed to be at eye level with me. I asked why it was still here because I would have thought they kicked it out already. The second I asked that I see my dad enter the room and ask the same question to him. He said they tried but the little thing wouldn’t let them get to it and force it to. It then went to my room and stayed there until I let it in. My dad said that he expects me to get rid of it before we leave in two days because we can’t just take it with us back home. But until then, I could let it stay, as long as I take responsibility it if breaks anything.

 The two days go by full of me and the Zorua just vibing and playing with each other until the morning my family was heading back home. After spending those days with Zorua I got attached to it and didn’t want to say goodbye. I said that I couldn’t take them with me and that this was goodbye. I set it down and I grabbed my pants and was pulling on me, begging me to either stay or take them with me. I kept saying how it has to be this way because my parents didn’t want to be taking care of a Pokémon until it gave out, let go, and ran out of sight. I hopped in my dad’s truck and we drove away.

 Once we reached a rest stop, we decided to go to the bathroom. I was done first and went back to the truck and waited. Then I saw the Zorua run from around the truck and jump right into me. I was surprised and was wondering how they got here. Turns out, when they ran out of view, they jumped right into the bed of the truck. I was, of course, happy to see them, but then my mom, dad, and brother walked out and saw. My mom started laying into me about how they don’t want to be taking care of a Zorua and how I will be in so much trouble once we got home. My dad eventually couldn’t take it anymore and told mom to stop. He then began to say that he understood exactly how I felt, because he had to do a similar thing with his Purrloin once my older sister was born because she was allergic to it. He already felt bad about telling me to let it go when it was scratching at my door to be let in. Seeing me tearfully saying goodbye was the final straw for him.

 So he said that if I wanted to, I could keep the Zorua and take care of it. I was absolutely overjoyed and said that I would love to and hugged Zorua as hard as I could without harming it. My mom was asking how would I even be able to take care of it and my dad said with his help. He said that he would teach me how to take care of it and would help with the things I couldn’t do. My mom then gave up because she knew she couldn’t win a battle against distilled love for a pet and said this to me, “You better take very good care of this, because if you don’t, I will make sure it will find a new home that will. Do you understand?”, I said I did and we went back home, with me and Zorua just snuggled together the entire way back. !<

Fun fact, every time I decide to have a Zorua on my team (all two times), they were both shiny, with one of them having pokerus.

This dream was the result of how my mom reacted when I asked for a dog, me finding a shiny Zorua, me watching one of the anime episodes, and me being very tired from a road-trip back home. I know this isn’t formatted very well but that’s because I was just recounting this dream, not telling a story.