Tsuna managed not to break down crying when he finally saw town lights but it was a close thing.

After wandering around in a dark forest for almost four days, electrical lamps and houses with people in them were truly a sight for sore eyes. Pokémon Center seemed to glow softly and Tsuna swore he felt his eyes grow moist. It was like seeing an old friend after a long war.

Almost in daze he dreamily walked trough the doors, rush of warmth reached out to enfold him as he entered. He slumped down on the nearest plastic seat he could find. Never again, mark his words, he would never enter another forest as long as he lived. Not only had he managed to lose his way so utterly thoroughly that even now he didn't have any idea where the hell he was -and not that he cared much at the moment, this place had humans instead of pokémon so it was like heaven to him- and somehow accidentally caught a wild pokémon, again.

Thank Arceus for pokémon centers, he would never take them for granted again. Not only did they offer free beds for the night to young trainers, they also had cheap medical care for pokémon and reasonably prized food.

Feeling incredibly sleepy and very aware of his aching muscles he figured he should go and ask if they still had beds available when he felt someone breath into his ear.

"Can I help you sir?"

Swallowing his shriek of terror and promptly falling off from his seat, he stared up at the nurse that had silently walked behind him while he was still contemplating the horrors of dark forests and the sheer awesomeness of human dwellings.

Call him a coward, but Tsuna had always thought nurses were scary people. While he could admit that with their long straight pink hair and tanned skin Cervello nurses were quite beautiful, but he had never stopped wondering why on earth they all looked almost exactly alike and insisted on wearing masks to cover their eyes.

His mother had often asked why Tsuna always was so nervous around pink haired nurses, she had a very high opinion of them. Not only did their organization train most of the pokémon nurses in the whole world, but some of them also specialized in working as pokémon batttle referees.

But still, the whole indifferent air around them made Tsuna's skin shiver and wonder what they were thinking.

"Sir," the Cervello nurse asked again, "would you like me to take care of your pokémon?"

Ah, Tsuna had been so concentrated on finding a soft bed -not a stupid sleeping bag- to sleep in, he had almost forgotten his pokémon.

"If-if it's not too much trouble." he managed to stutter and grabbed two red and white spheres from his belt.

The nurse gave him a slight nod and set his pokéballs to a machine behind the counter. After couple of seconds a cheerful sounding melody rang out of the machine as a sign that healing was in progress.

Nodding to the machine in satisfaction the nurse turned back to Tsuna.

"Your pokémon are all healthy again, is there anything else you would need?" she asked in a monotonous disinterested voice and handed his capsules back to him.

"Err, well" Tsuna scratched his cheek awkwardly. "I would like to spend a nigh here and could you tell me, umm, in which town exactly am I?"

The nurse blinked at him, or at least Tsuna felt like she was blinking at him before answering. "You are currently in Tornado Town, sir."

Tsuna felt his mouth fall open. "Umm, correct me if I'm mistaken but, isn't Tornado town in Storm country?" the nurse only looked at him as if he was mentally retarded.

"That is correct sir."

Great. Just perfect. He had somehow stumbled to a whole another country! His home was near the border but still, this had to be a some kind of a record. No one but him could get so lost that they'd end up to a bloody different county.

Giving a deep sigh and feeling his shoulders slump he muttered his thanks as the nurse pointed him the direction to sleeping rooms. He however stopped when he saw something from the corner of his eye.

A video phone stared at him innocently from the other side of the room. He wanted to ignore it, his mother didn't deserve a call for him after making him leave home and go through all those horrible things in the forest. She could be worried for all he cared, he wasn't going to call.

His video phone card was out of his pocket faster than he could blink and his other hand was already dialling numbers. His heart was made out of soft butter, boy he was pathetic.

After a moment of anxious waiting, the black screen came alive and he saw his mother's smiling face.

"Tsu-kun you finally called! I was little worried and thought you might have gotten lost but I knew you would find your way in the end."

Ah, there was that strange feeling of moisture at the corner of his eye again. Tsuna quickly blinked his eyes and smiled sheepishly at his mother.

"Oh, but you must have caught tons of pokémon already! Let mom see. Let mom see!"

"I've only caught two." Tsuna explained feeling embarrassed for some reason and swiftly unleashed Natsu and Kaze.

The meowth seemed first slightly dazed and then scared. The cat pokémon eyed the video phone with great suspicion and didn't even seem to notice that Tsuna was holding him under his arm. Kaze merely ruffled her feathers on Tsuna's shoulder and tried to touch the screen with her peak.

"Oh, my. Pidgey and meowth, how cute! I knew you could do it Tsu-kun, mommy is proud."

Blushing harder than he remembered blushing in a long time, he turned his face away from the screen in embarrassment. He couldn't honestly remember the last time his mom had said she was proud of him. He knew it was his own fault, he was a no-good failure so he never gave her much to be proud of.

It felt nice to be told that she was proud of him.

He tried quickly act humble and explain that Natsu didn't really even like him nor would he ever obey his orders.

"-and every time I try to pet him he does this." Tsuna put his trembling hand carefully on the cat's head, only to have angry claws swipe it away. "See. He doesn't like me at all."

His mother had observed the whole thing through the screen in silence and nodded in understanding.

"Ah, I can see why you think so but I think that this one wants to be friends with you just as much as you want to be friends with him."

Tsuna wondered if his mom was being serious.

"When you are taming a wild pokémon it's crucial to act calm at all times. Otherwise the pokémon will sense your nervousness and get scared." she lectured him through the phone.

"Act calm." Tsuna repeated in disbelief. " Is that really all it takes?"

"It's not as easy as it sounds Tsu-kun. That means you can't make loud noises or sudden movements. No trembling or quick breathing, you must be perfectly calm."

No trembling. No loud noises or sudden movements. Yeah, no problem. It wasn't as if he acted like that all the time. Especially around pokémon to boot. The world's sense of humour seemed to be very cruel and hit where it truly hurt.

Tsuna sighed and willed himself to smile at his mom and continue chatting normally about everyday stuff. With a final good night he hang up and gave Natsu and Kaze a thoughtful stare.

I'll sleep first and worry about this taming stuff later.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Next morning Tsuna woke up feeling more refreshed than he had felt in days. Birds were singing, sun was shining. His back wasn't aching and the roof was nowhere near his head when he sleepily rose into a sitting position. First time in a whole week he felt relatively good about this training pokémon adventure thingy. Feeling daring he made a hasty decision to actually try training Kaze and Natsu in the nearby training fields.

Scampering out of the bed, he clumsily pulled his pants and t-shirt on and finished his outfit by tying his ball-belt on his waist. His former classmates would undoubtedly do a double take if they were to see him now, true he only had two pokémon but at least he looked like a real trainer.

He grabbed couple sandwiches on his way out and was still chewing them when he arrived to a training fields where the Nurse had directed him. He almost spat his mouthful of bread out when a jet of water narrowly missed his head.

"You almost had it, keep going!"

" Frii, duck quickly!"

A sturdy looking wartortle spit another powerful jet of water from its mouth and narrowly managed to hit the butterfly pokémon it was fighting against with. The butterfree was flapping its wings, desperately trying to stay in air.

"Good job Mizu." The wartortle's trainer cheered, looking at the other trainer smugly. "Didn't I tell you that your girly little bug would be no match against my pokémon. Feel free to give up already."

Tsuna grimaced feeling his earlier enthusiasm slipping away. Now this was another reason why he disliked pokémon battles so much. Not only were the beasts dangerous, their trainers tended to be equally nasty. The wartortle's trainer was a tall, well build boy, perhaps couple years older than Tsuna and the girl he was fighting with.

Tsuna couldn't tell if the girl took offence from the older boy's words, her bangs were shadowing her face, making her expression hard to read.

"Let's end this," the older boy spat. " Mizu use tackle-"

"Frii, use poison powder!"

The butterfree suddenly released a small cloud of poison dust from its wings straight on the wartortle's face. The blue turtle took a shocked step back, trying to rub the poison away.

"Now use confusion."

The butterfree's eyes suddenly released eerie blue glow and the wartortle screeched, obviously in pain, the poison making it even more weaker.

Tsuna watched all this in morbid fascination. The girl had turned the tables and the older boy had gone pale and seemed lost for worlds. Not a very smart thing to do in battle. Anger seemed to quickly replace the shock however, and he was quickly yelling his own commands.

"Mizu, don't give up. Hit the bug with hydro pump!"

Once again the turtle spit out a powerful stream of water but it was clearly struggling under the poison's influence and aimed clumsily. The butterfree beat the air with its wings and managed to dodge the attack.

"Frii, finish it with gust."

The butterfly's wings increased their pace, making the wind form a small dust tornado. The blue turtle tried to duck but it was a feeble attempt and soon the wartortle was lying fainted on the ground.

The older boy recalled the turtle with a angry huff, gave the girl one more glare and walked away in angry silence, without saying a world. The girl merely patted her butterfree as a thanks and recalled it in its pokéball with a tired sigh.

Now that the fight had come to an end Tsuna had every intention to scram and fast. What the heck had he been thinking, had he forgotten how scary pokémon were. Spitting streams of water, producing poison, it was terrifying! At least his minions were relatively harmless but what if another trainer like the older boy challenged Tsuna to battle. He would get beaten so badly it wasn't even funny.

So deep in his thoughts he had failed to notice that the girl trainer was watching him in puzzlement before recognition flashed in her eyes.

"Sawada… san?"

Tsuna's heart leapt in his chest in surprise and his brown eyes widened in realisation. He knew this girl, in fact he had had a crush for this girl ever since he was eleven. Her hair was slightly shorter and she was wearing jeans instead of her customary skirts but there was no way he would ever forget those caramel eyes.

"Sacagawa…san."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Sasagawa Kyoko, or love of his life, as Tsuna liked to refer her in his head, had promptly seized his arm and half forcibly dragged him into a nearby café for a chat.

Not that Tsuna minded at all, in fact it was like a dream come true. Someone like him eating lunch with a school idol like Sasagawa Kyoko. Now if only he could man up and stop staring at his toes like a flustered idiot.

"I was really surprised to see you Sawada-san. I had no idea you had become a trainer as well." Kyoko said with her sweet voice, happily eating her chocolate cake. "We definitely should battle. I'm not very good but I can put up a decent fight as you saw earlier, though that boy had been very rude to me earlier and I really wanted to beat him into pulp for that." she smiled like an angel and Tsuna felt his face grow hotter.

"Umm, I just started. My travel I mean." he tried hastily explain because Arceus help him if Kyoko-chan challenged him to a battle. Judging by the earlier fight he would be toast.

"And I only have two pokémon so I doubt it would be much of a fight." he finished with sheepish smile.

"Oh…" Kyoko-chan looked little disappointed but cheered up quickly. "That's okay. I didn't realise you had so few pokémon but hey I know-" she suddenly seemed to have an idea and smiled dazzlingly at Tsuna. "I haven't seen anyone from Namimori in ages so it would be a shame to part so quickly. I heard about this particular spot in forest where you can find pichus and pikachus. I have always wanted one so I thought I could go and try my luck in catching one but you could come with me, it would surely be fun."

Tsuna nodded his head almost in trance totally hypnotised by Kyoko chan's smile.

"Yeah it sounds really fun."

"Great." Kyoko clapped her hands together enthusiastically "Could you wait for me here, I go fetch my backpack and then we can go catch some new pokémon."

"Yeah." Tsuna nodded, still in trance. "I'll wait."

"I'll be back soon" she said and then she sprinted across the road and disappeared behind next door's bookstore corner.

Tsuna blinked his eyes, almost as if waking from a dream. His head was still full of Kyoko-chan's smiles but they were quickly disappearing making room for Tsuna's growing horror. Forest. She had mentioned forest hadn't she, as in they would be going into the forest. To catch pokémon.

Nearby customers jumped in alarm as a teenage boy with wild brown hair hit his head against the table and let out a despairing groan.

He just never learned did he.

OoOoOoOoO

The sun was shining brightly but that did hardly anything to cheer him up, in fact he had purposefully searched the most shadowy bush he could find and nestled into a small ball of misery.

Ever since his mother had laid an new egg she had become really aggressive towards him, until this morning she had finally snapped and kicked him out of their nest with an angry hiss. His mother's rejection felt cold and bitter in his throat. Small tears were leaking out of his eyes making him look even more pathetic.

Others would undoubtedly tease him and call him a cry baby. They would tell him that he should be overjoyed that he was finally old enough to leave the nest and thus be considered an adult. But he didn't want any of it, he liked it when his mother took care of him and groomed his fur. But it seemed those days were all in the past now and he would have to survive by himself.

"What do I do now."

More tears escaped from his sky blue eyes.

"Chuuuuu-"

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: I am sorry for any possible grammar mistakes.