When nobody's home [Training/completed]

Returning to his parental home, the very place where his youth had so quickly passed by, wasn't exactly what could be called the most joyous of moments for Felix. However, he was in the need of some space to properly train the furfrou which had been his companion ever since he had done a short business trip to Kalos, where he had been given the pokemon as a token of appreciation for his hard work.

It wasn't like he really cared about the work he had done, but the Furfrou was indeed a welcome change in the young man's life, as it was a key for him to open his path to the world of pokemon as he had wanted so badly, not to mention the fact that a pokemon like Furfrou had a certain elegance and flair sorely missed by many other pokemon.

When Felix passed through the main hall of his parental home, he decided not to look at the pictures and paintings of brighter and better days, making his way to the mansion's garden, where he quietly sat down on one of the several classically designed benches in the inner circle of grass, which surrounded by high, thick hedges of green was the perfect place to let out his Furfrou and test the pokemon's strength and obedience.

"Allright, come out Furfrou," The young man spoke calmly, while stretching out his arm with the pokeball held in his hand. A flash of blue light erupted out of the ball, like a bolt of lightning, forming into the pokemon as it touched the grass. "Now...I guess since you're still a young one, you're probably not familiar with anything but the most basic of moves. Though I do recall that man mentioning that you had the special move mimic thanks to careful breeding."

The Furfrou looked at its master, shook its head a bit and started darting around. While Felix was thinking about what those so-called basic moves were, trying to remember his training at Pokemon Tech, his pokemon in the meantime seemed to have the time of its life, running around and barking like there was no tomorrow, until a single grunt from its owner made the furfrou twitch and calmly return to the bench where its master was sitting.

"Hmm, let's first try and see what you can do before we actually try and teach you something new," Felix sighed, standing up from his bench to see if anyone from the mansion's staff was around. Luckily, it seemed that the regular gardener was bussy cutting the hedges. With a rather sly smile on his face, Felix turned to his pokemon and pointed at the gardener. "Go on Furfrou, use growl."

The Furfrou first didn't seem to react, tilting its head a bit to the left while looking at its master, then to the right, before its gaze eventually followed the direction into which Felix was pointing. Realizing what was asked of it, the furfrou swiftly rushed towards the gardener, surprising it with a loud, intimidating growl.

While seeing the man cower before the pokemon, Felix had a lot of trouble refraining himself from laughing out loud, as the misery of the man was just to funny to watch. Again the furfrou growled, baring its teeth to the poor gardener, who grabbed his tools and tried to go to another part of the hedge to continue his work.

Greatly amused by how his pokemon was scaring the poor gardener, Felix stood up from the bench and motioned furfour to follow him, which the loyal creature did without complaining, yet again wagging its tail and running circles around its master until they came to the hedge which the gardened had succesfully groomed after long hours of labor.

"I guess next up wood be sand attack," The young man chuckled, as he watched how the poor old gardener was trying to continue his work on another part of the hedge, obviously intimidated by how furfrou growled at him earlier. "Allright Furfrou, use sand-attack."

Glad that it could seemingly please its master by showing off its moves, the furfrou quickly turned around, with its head facing away from the hedge. It quickly tensed the muscles in its front legs and started whipping up the dirt, covering part of the hedge with it, to great amusement of Felix, who pointed to another spot nearby, ordering the furfrou to yet again use sand-attack.

The pokemon really enjoyed this, being able to actually please its master, though it didn't really understand or care why it was actually ordered to use the moves though, since there was no other pokemon in sight. However, furfrou complied and yet again tensed the muscles in its front legs, whipping up the dirt and sending it flying into another part of the hedge. When the pokemon had done its work, Felix simply looked at the hedge, turned his gaze to the gardener and approached the old man, with furfrou happily following by his side. "That hedge hasn't been properly groomed, it's dirty. Do it again and properly this time, will you."

When they had gone from the garden into the mansion's living room, Felix motioned the furfrou to have a moment's rest on the soft carpet that was spread out through the room, while he would get something from his old room upstairs. the furfrou simply complied, glad that it could have some relaxing time on a properly soft carpet, while its master would do God knows what. A simple, short grunt and the pokemon was halfway snoozing itself into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, Felix went upstairs to the room he had when he was still a child, which he had been using more or less as a storage room for several of his more valuable possessions, such as a painting made by Burgh from Castelia city in Kalos and a few books and encyclopedia on pokemon, of which he grabbed himself the one he had bought in Kalos as well.

Rummaging through some old stuff, he finally found himself what he needed, the TM he had bought rather recently because of the fact that he was given Furfrou for his achievements, yet he had not yet been given the time to actually use it on the pokemon. With all things necessary, now gathered, the young man headed back downstairs to the living room, where he decided not to wake up the pokemon and simply use his pokeball to retrieve it.

"Pretty pokemon need rest after all," Felix chuckled, while taking a seat in one of the large comfortable chairs in the room and looked up what Furfrou's most basic moves were, as he had to decide what moves to keep and what moves to get rid of if he wanted his pokemon to be a shining example of his own lifestyle. "Let's see, I can either remove growl, tackle or sand attack for this TM to be used, tackle is probably the least useful in actual battle, but probably comes in handy for wild pokemon."

Eventually, after half an hour of reading and thinking, Felix had finally decided on what to do and as he placed the TM close to Furfrou's pokeball, the item vanished. Stretching out his arm, the young man yet again summoned Furfrou, motioning the pokemon to come along with him, back to the garden, so they could actually train a bit more and so that Felix could see the result of the TM he had used with his own eyes.

When they were on their way to the garden, one of the maids almost bumped against Felix, which gave the young man an idea. After all, there was no better way to test a move than letting it be used in actual battle.

"You have a pokemon, right?" Felix asked the maid, while grinning slightly, to which the maid nodded, revealing a single pokeball she had kept in one of the pockets of her uniform. "Good, come and meet me in the garden, I need someone to practice with."

When they had finally come to the garden again, Felix was surprised that in the short time he had been in his old room and the living room, the gardener had done exactly what he had demanded from him: returning the garden back to its proper state. even though he actually wanted to use the grass patch at the center of the garden for the training, he decided that perhaps it was better to go to the larger, open field at the back of the garden, where in the old days he and his sisters played ball and other silly children's games.

The maid in the meantime, followed the young master with a nervous expression on her face. The furfrou in tow, hopping around like a dopey dog.

When they had finally arrived at the larger field at the back of the garden, Felix motioned the furfrou to stand next to him, to mich the pokemon happily complied, hopping towards its master until it stood still next to him.

"Alright, summon your pokemon," The young master ordered the maid, noticing the slight twitch she showed when he did so. It was always amusing to see how the commoners groveled in the face of those in power. "removing sand attack was probably for the best.  Come on Furfrou, let's see what you can do."

The maid nervously grabbed her pokeball and threw it on the grass, summoning her pokemon. To Felix' surprise, it seemed she had at least some taste, as an elegant looking glameow appeared on the grass, ready for action.

Wasting no time, Felix ordered the furfrou to use growl, which after a second of wondering what it was told to do, complied by baring its teeth and letting out a menacing growl, which seemed to affect both the glameow as well as the maid, who seemed to tremble for a moment when she heard the noise. However, she seemed to be experienced enough to shrug it off and ordered her glameow to use scratch, which it did with such a lightning fast ferocity, that both Felix and furfrou were slightly surprised, much to the latter's annoyance, as the furfrou felt the glameow's claws burry themselves deep in his snout, making it yelp and jump back, shaking its head, as the scratches started to sting a bit.

"Alright Furfrou, use tackle!" Felix exclaimed loudly, when noticing that despite the fact that the glameow managed to make a clean hit, it still didn't manage to actually hurt furfrou that much, probably thanks to both the pokemon's ability and the growl it had used earlier. "Show no mercy."

Eager to please it's master, the furfrou quickly tensed the muscles in it's hind legs and jumped towards the glameow, but missed and slid across the grass when the maid asked glameow to dodge and use slash.

Before the furfrou could react, the glameow was already next to it, sending it's claws upwards, slashing the poor furfrou's side and this time the effect seemed a lot worse than with the earlier scratch. Annoyed by this fact, Felix demanded that furfrou would keeep its calm and try another tackle, to which it complied by tensing the muscles in its hind legs once again and leaping head first towards the glameow. This time, the maid was slightly to slow, resulting in the glameow being nudged aside pretty hard.

"Perfect, now use Echoed voice!" The young master yelled at Furfrou, hoping to end the pokemon battle right there and then, yet to both his and furfrou's surprise, the echoed voice failed. With it being furfrou's first attempt on using the move, it opened its maw wide, yet only managed to produce a meagre squeak. "What...what was that?!"

Even the maid seemed a bit surprised by this result, yet quickly managed to ask glameow to jump a bit backwards to make some distance between itself and the furfrou. However, Felix wasn't planning on letting this minor setback ruin his chances, so he quickly ordered furfrou to use growl, to which the pokemon complied by letting out a ferrocious sounding growl while baring its teeth at the glameow, glad that it could at least atone for its failure with the echoed voice. "This might need a few more attempts before you can actually use the darn move."

The maid nervously started fidgeting with her dress, not entirely sure wether or not she had to aim for a victory in this pokemon battle or please the master with a victory, but when she noticed his borderline breaking point expression, she realized that he didn't want her to throw in the towel so easily and that he had already noticed her strange behavior in that matter. So, with the urge of staying on the young master's good side, she ordered her glameow to run towards the furfrou and perform another slash, even if it seemed less practical given the two growls and furfrou's ability lowering the damage of glameow's attacks.

nonetheless, the pokemon rushed towards furfrou, who was still a bit off guard because it couldn't understand why it had failed to perform the echoed voice move and it felt that it had failed the master, which is why it didn't manage to dodge the glameow's slash, which came so abruptly for both Felix and the furfrou that it hit its mark pretty easily, much to Felix' annoyance.

"Again Furfrou, use tackle," The masked man exclaimed, hoping that this time it might work.The furfrou simply complied, leaped towards the glameow and managed to hit it against the side. "Alright Furfrou, try the Echoed Voice again, you'll have to master it."

Furfrou looked at Felix, shook its head and quickly placed itself in an offensive stance, spreading it's legs while breathing in deeply. With enough power to create a rather strong shockwave through the air, the furfrou barked incredibly loud, the pressure of its voice throwing the glameow back a few feet.

"Excellent furfrou, don't let glameow escape," Felix ordered his pokemon, feeling elated that the echoed voice had finally been used properly for the first time. All it would need now, was some extra training and repetition of the move. "Try it one more time Furfrou, Echoed Voice!!"

Trying its best to please it's master, the furfrou gave the glameow no chance to escape, using it's larger build to run after the opponent's pokemon and jump in front of it every time it thought to have found a way to escape the chasing furfrou. When finally the maid ordered the glameow to use scratch, the furfrou simply bided the attack, only to let loose his own menacing bark.

The glameow was thrown backwards by the shockwave the incredibly loud bark had created, with the attack visibly stronger than during its first use, ripping apart the ground as it traveled for a few meters on end.

the glameow, having taken the full brunt of the attack, first seemed to be quite alright, as it landed gracefully upon its paws, yet a single instant later, it started to wobble on its feet and dropped down onto it's side, obviously having trouble to remain conscious. However, when it got back up to its feet it turned towards the maid and awaited its orders, but Felix noticed the hesitation in the maid's eyes and quickly ordered Furfrou to use all its remaining strength to launch a final echoed voice.

With a soft happy bark to preceed it, the furfrou unleashed a yet even more powerful echoed voice, in the form of an incredibly loud bark, which Felix imagined even a deaf man could've heard.

The glameow, aweakened already to the point of exhaustion by the earlier hit, could not defend itself and was thrown across the grass like a ragdoll by the furfrou's powerful attack until it stopped and the pokemon lied down on the grass without moving, besides the shallow breathing, at which point the maid had no other choice than to retreat her pokemon and let it return back into its pokeball.

"Really, not bad Furfrou," Felix softl whispered, when his pokemon happily ran towards him, letting out a few happy barks before sitting next to its master. "You've deserved some nice grooming for this beautiful performance."

The maid, slightly nervous by what had happened and how the young master would react, started fidgeting with her dress, even more so when Felix and furfrou approached her and the young master lifted her chin a bit to look her straight in the eyes. "That glameow of yours...is trained well. Now as for your punishment, you'll have to give Furfrou a nice bath and groom his fur."

Almost glad that it was just that, the maid told furfrou to follow her to the large bathroom upstairs, where she would do as she was told, all the while leaving Felix to go back to the living room, where he'd take some time to read more of the books he had gathered from his old room. "I might want to take a look around in these books for pokemon that might interest me."

Alrighty, here's what I've come out with.

1198 words, which counts as 120 exp points rounded up. Altogether, Furfrou reaches level fifteen! He'll also gain ten happiness points for this, and some snazzy new moves: Baby Doll Eyes, Headbutt and Tail Whip! Let's say that Echoed Voice was successfully learned, too.

This was a lot of fun to read! I do wish Felix would bathe his own babu, though~~ </3