Disclaimer: Pokémon and all related characters and materials are property of Game Freak and Nintendo.

Once Upon an Egg
By: Nanaki BH

"I-Is this what I think it is?"

He nods. "It sure is. Well? Cute, isn't it?"

"It is. I've just never seen one before. What's it going to be?"

Black smiled secretively. "I think it'd be more fun if I just let you guess."

It was N's first time holding a Pokémon egg. The two sat together on the bench outside the daycare center, the brand new egg cradled on N's lap. In the nearby playground, the children played with their Pokémon with happy giggles and spring flowers basked in the morning sunshine. It seemed that what they say about spring was right after all; they came to pick up two of Black's Pokémon and got an egg at the same time.

Despite being around Pokémon for so much of his life, despite being practically raised by them, N had somehow never had the fortune of coming in contact with a real egg. It was smaller than he expected, but then again, not all Pokémon were the same. What rested inside the warm round egg in his hands was a mystery.

"W-Wait… I know how this works," N said, blushing slightly. They may have been talking about Pokémon, but the subject itself still felt oddly risqué for him. "You picked up your Munna and Tepig so… Could it be a Tepig egg?"

Black shook his head. "Nope. Tepig's a boy, you know that. What's in the egg will be based on the girl Pokémon."

"Oh." N blinked slowly, a hand idly rubbing over the surface of the egg. "…Did you have them take care of a girl Pokémon, though?"

Black lifted up the brim of his cap and gave him a stupefied look. "Of course I did." He leaned into N's shoulder with a sigh. "You're catching on, though."

"Am I? Your Munna's a boy."

Slowly, Black's eyes narrowed, confused, but then he shot up straight. N was more adept at talking to Pokémon than anyone else. If he said that his Munna was a boy, then his Munna was a boy. Which meant that he'd been very confused this whole time and that he didn't know what was in the egg either.

The two looked down at the egg as if it were suddenly a black box; foreign and mysterious on all sides. It was hard enough for Black to suddenly have to accept that his Munna was really a boy, but to think that now he had no idea what was inside the egg… Well, it actually made things surprisingly more interesting. Except he didn't really like surprises and who knew how long it would take for the egg to hatch when he didn't even know what kind of Pokémon was inside it.

"I never knew…" he muttered absently, still feeling a little stunned by his new information. "But more importantly, now we don't even know which one of them is the daddy of this egg."

"C-Could it be possible…" N started, drawing random little patterns over the top of the egg with his forefinger. "Do you think… They could both be the daddy?"

"What gives you the idea that they could both be…" Although the question sounded ludicrous, the look N was giving him was rather serious – and sort of bashful. From time to time, Black tended to forget what a poor upbringing N had experienced. Considering the nature of their friendship-turned-schoolboy-romance, it was inevitable that he'd run into all the ways in which N wasn't informed. He'd discovered early how strange N thought it was for people to hold hands. Kissing in itself had been a massive learning experience for him.

Black was interested in teaching him about a lot of things; about people, about Pokémon – about anything.

But he was not ready to explain why two boy Pokémon, and by extension – two boy trainers – could not make beautiful egg babies with each other.

The sound of adorable children's laughs and teasing voices suddenly made him feel rather uncomfortable. He scooted over just an inch on the bench and looked away for a second, not wanting N to see if he was blushing while he explained.

"Y-You see, N… When a boy Sewaddle and a girl Sewaddle love each other very much… They, uh. Well, they make an egg. It doesn't really work the same way for two boys."

N gazed a little sadly over at the Munna and Tepig who played together with the children in the playground. "But what if they love each other, too? Doesn't that matter?"

"They just don't work together like that!"

Maybe he'd said that a little too loudly. The kids looked over for a second, but then kept playing as if they hadn't really noticed at all. But N was looking down into his lap with a sullen expression. Black wanted to apologize, but he wasn't sure what he'd be apologizing for; his awkward way of explaining the Pidoves and the Combees, perhaps?

"Um. Well, the boy Pokémon can still take care of an egg together, even if they can't make one." He wondered if he was even talking about Pokémon anymore. This didn't really have anything to do with their mystery egg now.

N nodded, absorbing his new information. "N knowledge" was still very different from normal-people logic, so Black worried that he was still going to interpret it all in some really weird way, though. When he looked back up at Black, he seemed considerably brighter, smiling again in that way that was way too innocent and made Black melt.

"Alright," he said with conviction. "No matter what kind of Pokémon it is, what's important is that we can take care of it together with our Pokémon and raise it with love."

Together

Love

Black needed to sit down. Except he was already sitting, so he just settled for trying to disguise a dreamy sigh as a yawn. While his mind was off somewhere in the clouds prancing with the rainbows, one of N's hands found his in the space between them on the bench. He still acted a little bashful about showing affection, but he did it in the most endearingly gentlemanly way.

"We'll take real good care of it," Black said back, knowing for sure that they would.

Although he was very content to just wrap himself up in N's world, his attention was drawn away for a minute by a rowdy girl who exited from the daycare. As she swung the door wide open, a little Tepig with a pink bow on its neck ran out in front of her and made a beeline for the playground – right to Black's Tepig. His Munna bounced away from them, as if to give them some alone-time and the two Tepigs bumped their noses together.

"Black," N said, hushed and excited. "I think we found the mommy."

The girl ran after them yelling for her precious Tepig to get away from that "dirty boy". The moment that the words left her lips, N stood with a rather frightening face and Black just knew that this poor girl was going to get some unexpected, harsh lesson about how trainers shouldn't interfere with their Pokémon's love lives.

He couldn't blame either of them, but especially not the girl. Ten to one, their Tepigs would only meet again if they saw each other back at the daycare, but N was probably going to make them marry now or something.

His days with N were always bound to be interesting.

At least they found out what would hatch from the egg.