Passing winter daze

Vali woke up in the morning feeling a steady ache in her neck and side. She carefully got up and figured out why when she opened her eyes. She'd fallen asleep in the living room curled up against Smaug and her other pokemon. Looking towards Steven, she found him in much the same position as her only he was asleep on a couch rather than the floor. Biting back a yawn, she began the daily task of getting out of her pokemon's clutches and going about her morning business. When she got out of the bathroom and headed for the kitchen, Delia was up and making breakfast already.

Delia turned her head when Vali entered the kitchen and smiled, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah though I really regret passing out on the floor," Vali rubbed at her sore neck, "Remind me not to do that again if I have a chance,"

"I will," Delia giggled at her, "Now, would you like to help make breakfast?"

"I'll take preparing the pokemon food," Vali decided earning a small laugh, "There will be a lot of hungry pokemon getting up soon,"

Vali spent almost an hour preparing breakfast with Delia. Steven joined them not long after Vali started preparing the pokemon food and after getting a cup of coffee, he began helping out where he could. Once breakfast was made, a loud thump sounded from upstairs followed by a rather large racket causing Steven to ask, "What's going on?"

"Pidgey must have woken up Ash," Delia let out a soft laugh, "She's taken it upon herself to keep him from getting up late,"

Ash walked into the kitchen with Pidgey on his shoulder looking more than a little roughed up. He hugged Vali tightly when he saw her causing Pidgey to abandon ship for her breakfast. She hugged him in return, "Morning, sleepy-head."

"Morning, Vali," Ash yawned softly, "Did you help mom make breakfast?"

"Just the pokemon food and bacon," Vali answered as she pushed him to sit down, "So I heard quite the racket a few minutes ago, what happened?"

"Pidgey woke me up," Ash answered as he filled his plate of food while Vali took a seat next to Steven at the kitchen table, "What are you planning on doing today?"

"Steven and I are going to be at the lab until it's time for us to do our demonstration at the school," Vali answered as she began filling her plate, "Once you get done your homework, we should show Steven around town together,"

Ash looked a bit disappointed, "You won't be battling Professor Oak today?"

"Not today," Vali ate some of her breakfast, "We're going to wait until Saturday when you don't have school so you and Gary can watch,"

"I guess waiting two days won't be that bad," Ash muttered softly.

Vali rolled her eyes at him before going back to eating her breakfast.

After getting dressed for the day and seeing Ash off to school with Gary, Vali and Steven headed to Professor Oak's lab once they'd collected their pokemon from around the house. An aid greeted them when they entered, "Vali! Professor Oak's in the back. He said to send you two right on back when you'd arrived."

Vali felt a bit nostalgic as she made her way towards the back rooms where she'd spent most of her time in Pallet Town other than the Corral. She knocked on the door to his office and opened it when Professor Oak called out, "Come in."

"Morning, Professor," Vali held out the plate of cookies that Delia had sent them with, "Delia sent these along,"

"Oh bless her heart," Professor Oak took the cookies and put them on his desk, "Now, how about I check over your pokemon?"

"Sounds good, Professor," Vali said as they left Professor Oak's office.

Professor Oak led them to the part of his lab where the various pokemon in his care were given their check ups. Professor Oak took Balto, Pikachu, and Lileep's pokeballs to check them over himself. Lileep was being checked over to see just how much longer it would take for the prehistoric pokemon to evolve as well as if Steven needed to adjust the fossil pokemon's diet during this time anymore than he already had. All their other pokemon save for Eevee were given over to the Professors' aids to be checked over. Eevee would be checked over by Professor Oak himself in a few days once the League sponsored pokemon psychologist arrived to do the evolution pokemon's psych-evaluation. While Vali was curious about what Eevee's results would be, she dreaded them too since there was always a chance that she hadn't done enough to help him.

Professor Oak set the pokeballs into a holder, "Steven, would you mind us studying Lileep while you're here?"

"Not all, my father was actually hoping that you would seeing as there is still a lot we don't know about fossil pokemon and any knowledge you can give us will definitely help with the research," Steven answered as Professor Oak turned on a machine and set the pokeball holder into it, "All I ask is to keep me informed,"

"Of course," Professor Oak began fiddling with the monitor attached to the machine, "Now this will tell us their overall health, it will give us a base to work with,"

The morning hours were whittled away by Professor Oak's rather in-depth examination of all three pokemon. Vali didn't quite understand everything, but she was able to understand that Balto and Pikachu were at their peak health which was the perfect time to evolve them. Lileep was on the verge of evolution though he required a bit more water in his diet. Mineral water would be the best, it would give Lileep a boost in nutrients that would ensure he was at peak health for his evolution. The only pokemon that had anything worrying about them was Idril, but it was a problem that could easily be dealt with. A few of her spines were coming in a bit crooked which was taken care of by a small tool that Professor Oak had laying around the lab. It corrected the spines slowly over the course of a few hours. At this stage in their development, the spines weren't quite set in Idril's back allowing them to be moved without any pain. While it was a bit uncomfortable for the pokemon, the spines weren't attached to any nerves just yet.

Vali and Steven left to do their demonstration which was pretty fun though some of the students reminded her of Draco with his guard dogs back at Hogwarts. Despite that, the day was rather enjoyable. Ash and Gary accompanied them around town with Steven stopping at the local market to pick up some mineral water for Lileep. They headed back home so the boys could do their homework and eat dinner before Gary was picked up by Professor Oak.

The next few days consisted of similar activities with Vali showing Steven around Pallet Town and the surrounding farmland as well as the Corral. She showed him her favorite spots which were mostly focused around the corral and lab since that was where she spent a majority of her time in Pallet Town. Ash and Gary helped her out with the two trainers having to step in a few times to keep the boys from wreaking havoc. Nights were spent usually telling stories about their journey to Ash or going through pictures before the boy went to bed. When Saturday came, Vali and her pokemon were woken up by Ash shouting, "Vali! Wake up!"

The door slammed open allowing Ash to enter though thankfully he didn't try to jump on her bed. Groaning softly as she carefully sat up, she asked, "Ash, why do I have to wake up? It's," She checked the time and goggled at the fact it was six in the morning, "What are you doing awake at six in the morning on a Saturday of all days when it isn't even Christmas?"

"You're battling Professor Oak today, right?" Ash asked as he trotted closer to the bed with Pidgey sleepily preening his head.

"Not until after lunch, Ash," Vali rubbed at her eyes, "Go back to sleep, Ash. It's too early to be awake,"

"But Steven's awake," Ash said earning a small huff.

"Steven is doing work for his father, I am not," Vali told him, "Now either join us or go bug Steven, I didn't fall asleep until late last night because my egg began to move,"

Ash pouted a bit before climbing onto her bed. Everyone grumpily made room for the boy with Celina stealing Pidgey from Ash. Once they settled down, Ash let out a yawn and dropped his head down next her, "It's really warm in here, Vali."

"Fire-types, Ash," Vali said as Eevee moved to settle away from the boy.

Pippin, Pikachu, and Balto snuggled up to him pretty quickly while her less tolerating pokemon moved away from him though they still stayed on the bed. Eventually, they all fell back asleep and didn't wake up until a more reasonable time which was three hours later when Delia had them get up for breakfast.