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Ash and Go’s trip to Galar was nothing short of amazing. Ash got to meet so many new Pokemon that even he had never met before! Including, but not limited to, a mischievous Scorbunny.
Ash had his fair experience with rowdy Pokemon. Most of the time they battled it out, and when Pikachu beat them, they went on with their lives. A lot of the time they would become a pleasure to society. Sometimes they would join his team as the token tsundere.
Except this Scorbunny.
This Pokemon took losing the battle as a personal attack. Which it kind of was, in a way, but that's beside the point. Ever since being defeated, Scorbunny had been giving Ash the major side eye, as well as kicking him in the butt at any given opportunity. That part especially sucked.
Ash wasn't sure why his new friends had Pokemon that hated him so much. First, it was Yamper, which had literally tried to murder him in their first meeting. The little dog was always growling at him like he was some threat. Then it was Scorbunny, who had stalked Go until he finally accepted it. When the bunny wasn't clinging to his trainer, he was torturing Ash.
The worst part was that basically everyone else was oblivious to Ash’s suffering. Even when Go had seen Scorbunny kick him, he didn't do anything about it. He congratulated it on it's kicking skills! After Scorbunny came back to Kanto with them, though, it seemed to make an effort to only torment Ash in private before running away.
One day, Ash was enjoying a lazy afternoon of relaxing in bed. That is until he heard the door creak open. At first, he thought maybe Go was coming into the room, but he didn't see any person come in. Then he thought maybe his sleeping Pikachu had woken up and went to go get a snack, but sure enough, the mouse pokemon was curled up on his side.
A bit of dread made its way into Ash’s stomach as he realized the only beings in the lab small enough to not be seen from his perspective were Yamper or Scorbunny. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the bright red at the tips of Scorbunny’s ears at the foot of his bed.
“I'm starting to really wish Mew was Go’s first Pokemon,” Ash mumbled, half to himself. On cue, Scorbunny shot up and kicked Ash square in the face, almost leaving a burn mark. When it landed on the floor, it laughed uncontrollably.
“Pika!” Pikachu shot up in alarm. Ash pat it on the head to assure that he was fine. He wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, he wasn’t. That's what Scorbunny would want. He wasn’t going to give that cute little bastard the time of day.
That is, until this Pokemon had the nerve, the audacity, to taunt Ash. Scorbunny did its signature pose of patting his own butt and sticking out his tongue and Ash slowly rose from his resting position before flinging away his blanket (and Pikachu on accident) to chase this menace down. Scorbunny stopped laughing long enough to actually run away, careful not to leave any burns on the floor.
“Get over here, you cheater! Stop using Quick Attack!” Ash said, falling behind. Scorbunny disappeared around the corner of the hall to the kitchen.
When Ash rounded the corner, he couldn't believe what he saw. Actually, he could believe it, because Scorbunny would stoop this low. The bunny was curled up on Go’s lap. The boy absentmindedly pet it as he scrolled through his phone, probably reading some lab article.
“Go! Your Pokemon is a demon!” Ash said as he caught his breath. “He kicked me in the face for no reason!”
“Scorbunny would never do that!” Go replied in shock and disbelief. He put his phone down and scratched behind the Pokemon’s big ears. “Would you, Scorbunny?” he babytalked.
“Bun!” it keened at the praise, leaning into Go’s hand. Ash’s eye twitched at the blatant lies.
“Plus, even if he did kick you in the face, you probably deserved it,” Go took a sip of tea as Ash screamed in protest.
“I was laying down!”
“I dunno, sounds sketchy,”
“Whyyyy,” Ash slowly fell to the floor in defeat. As he lay face down, having an existential crisis, Pikachu padded next to him and tried to console him. He was beyond saving now. He craved validation and no one other than his beloved Pokemon would give it to him.
“Are you gonna cry on the floor or are you gonna do anything else with your life?” Go said. Ash flopped onto his back, looking up to Go puffing his cheeks in annoyance. It was cute. If only his Pokemon wasn't such an ass.
“I'll just cry on the floor, thanks,” Ash replied. Scorbunny looked down at him and literally smirked. This Pokemon was trying to spark some primal aggression in him and was honestly about to succeed. Granted, it would probably last for about five seconds before Ash desperately apologized for upsetting the Pokemon. But Scorbunny didn't need to know that.
While Ash was lost in his thoughts, he was brought back to his senses by Go laying down next to him. He held his phone up to continue reading whatever was on the screen as the little demon called Scorbunny settled itself on his chest.
“What are you doing?” Ash questioned. He thought he noticed a little bit of pink on Go’s cheeks as he replied, but he was probably imagining it.
“I dunno, you just looked lonely.” he said. “Is it so wrong of me to want to keep my friend company?” Even though Go acted smug about it, Ash could see him warily looking over to him to see if he was actually valid in that point.
“Hm, that's nice of you!” Ash smiled, scooting closer to Go than he really needed to. In the corner of his eye, he saw Scorbunny glaring at him, then looking up at his trainer in curiosity. Ash followed it’s gaze to Go’s face, which was turned away. He could see that his ears were pink, though. Scorbunny looked somewhat distraught, looking between Go and Ash. It looked like it had just had a revelation of some sort. Ash wondered what it was thinking.
“Well, of course--” Go was about to say something smug about his act of kindness, until his phone fell on his face. Ash burst into laughter, sitting up. He moved the phone away from his friend and laughed some more at his attempt at a glare.
Go’s eyes were watering from a direct strike to his nose, and his whole face was red with what Ash assumed to be embarrassment. After looking at him for a few seconds, Ash awkwardly coughed as he felt his face heat up.
“Why'd that happen? Weird.”
“W-well, I'm gonna get back to the dorm and-- uh-- make my bed!” Ash said, stiffly walking away. “Yeah, my sheets are everywhere so I'm gonna go.. fix that…”
“Uh, okay?” Go deadpanned, sitting up. “You have fun with that,”
Ash nodded and retreated to the dorm room. He opened a window to get some fresh air on his face. He must be coming down with a fever or something. Yeah, that was it. Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder, staring at its trainer with a knowing look. Not that Ash noticed or anything.
For some reason, after that day, Scorbunny stopped attacking Ash, at least unprovoked. It even made an effort to get along with him. Ash prided himself on his ability to connect with Pokemon, but even he couldn't figure out what had caused the sudden change of heart.
Oh well, as long as Ash could finally feel safe from the bunny’s wrath.