Because, really, she had to get him from somewhere. Thought I'd write this for some fun. And also because my rabbits need moar screentime. And Every loves this shipping~

Some Years Ago, at Goldenrod's Edge

It had been a calm day so far, in the outskirts of the very large city that Goldenrod was. Up by the edge of the flower shops district, some small stores were running their routine. Small buildings with automatic semitransparent doors that the humans crossed without much issue to carry out their business, buying small objects.

For some Pokémon, those doors were quite harder to handle, just like vanishing walls or mysterious artefacts, not to mention the fact that hlessil (strays) weren't allowed inside.

Not that the Nidorino cared today. This young specimen, probably barely over one year old, was strolling around the store, listening, sniffing with interest, his clean, unbitten ears flickering every time a ithé (human) was about to emerge from within the weird building, prompting the pinkish Pokémon to turn tail and run, horn down and muzzle open, towards the nearest thicket or parked hrududu (vehicle) to hide behind. He was happy to let himself run wildly every few minutes, trying the power of his new muscles and the toughness of his new paws, and each time he proudly stood before the store exposing his pale, unscarred flank, so silly of him to think that that was valuable but hey, that's the young for you.

Just like the other three or four Nidos roaming around the street, he was part of a small troop that lived by the very edge of the forest. That didn't make them bottom percentage, no… it was a honour, if a tribulation as well, to live near the humans, the elders of the nearby forest colony said. But boy it was hard and annoying sometimes, the Nidorino thought as he went hide in a thicket. Every once in a while some annoying human kit would try and randomly throw Pokéballs at them, not even bothering (or perhaps not knowing) with the ancient ritual. Or the troop delved too deep inside the city, nomed the wrong human's grass, and then they were chased back to the forest by angry Pokémon the colony called fuléarof, dogs of the dawn, but the Nidorino had heard the humans in blue clothes call Arcanine.

Silly dogs.

The laughter of small children and the voice of a human marli (mother) fading away, the Nidorino peeked outside of the thicket, and saw them go away. Looking down the street one of the other Nidos of the troop was trying to attack some silly Pidgeys, he would be busy for a while. Even further beyond the Sun was diving away, to the eternal sea, and the Nidorino turned his ears to the other side to check for any call from their troop leader. None come yet… that's great! He could have some more time to play, the Nidorino thought.

Time to cautiously approach the building again. Step after step, ears raised, the Nidorino moved slowly to face the mysterious disappearing wall that allowed the humans to come in and out…

And when he was very close, he decided to rub his muzzle against the lower part of the wall, just to confirm why he was so happy to spend the last half hour trying to figure out an automated door.

Yes, he did confirm it as soon as his nostrils picked the scent. He raised his sight to try and distinguish anything inside the building, but for the most part he couldn't understand anything of what he was seeing. All he knew was that there was a Nidorina, somewhere inside. His eyes scanned a couple of times but got nothing, and this prompted the Nidorino to push his horn against the mysterious wall... softly at first, but harder when he felt the wall vibrating and pushing back in response to his strength.

Test your strength, get past the wall, that was the "message" that he could get. He had enjoyed himself so much since his evolution, just a couple of moons ago. He had found himself stronger, faster, smarter, if unfortunately larger enough that he had to dig himself a new den. So… strong and fast enough to take down this mysterious wall, perhaps?

Face the wall, horn down, ears flattened. Focus his energy for a moment and... push!

Nothing. The wall wouldn't budge.

So naïve of him to forget that he had to charge! Pointy end of horn goes inside the opponent, his instructor told the once little Nidoran♂. After a warning growl and a moment to shake his head, the specimen turned around and walked a short distance away, five or six steps from the wall, then turned around to face it again.

A rawr was issued, because the Nidorino was not going to back down, which he showcased by pointing end of horn at the blue-ish wall. Without a response the Nidorino buffed and followed with the customary and always useful Leer, his body stiffened to look as threatening as possible, his irises acquiring a blue-ish tint for a brief moment. A thump on the ground, legs well spread, and after a moment to take a breath, his charge. He was so going to win this one.

The eager Nidorino had barely had the time to aim his horn in his stint at attacking when his ears picked what seemed like a very sharp cry coming from above. A slight tremor under his feet and the Nidorino was surprised to see the wall quickly move away somehow and… disappear?

Where did it go, the Nidorino asked to himself as he hastily braked, followed with a surprised "where am I now?" in a somewhat meeping mental tone.

Inside

The Nidorino looked around, he was now in a different place that seemed to be the inside of the building, the floor and the walls were different and there were weird trees lined up with even weirder coloured leaves and objects hanging from them. The sounds and smells were strange. He instinctively followed his ears and turned his head up to notice some sort of black eye on the ceiling, watching him.

Sniff left… Sniff right… where was the Nidorina?

The Nidorino hesitantly took a step forwards and looked around. He could listen some humans around but couldn't see them, they were spread somewhere amidst the weird trees, some Pokémon were also there if the scents he was picking were all right.  He would have to start looking around and evade any humans that would-

Oh? The tremor again! The Nidorino quickly turned back to see the blue-ish wall slide in from nowhere, and within just a couple of seconds his view of the trees and the hrududu outside, as well as the soft wind, were nearly completely blocked by the mysterious wall. Nearly skipping a heartbeat the Nidorino poked the wall with a paw, then his horn… just like before, all he felt was a slight vibration and a strong resistance. He could see some Nidorino-like shadows moving outside, probably the rest of his troop, and his ears flared up.

<…Trapped? Rrrrr?>

He nervously turned around, examining his surroundings. There were some more noises that he didn't pay much attention to as he was busy scanning for any other possible exit, but he was fairly sure he had circled the building many times and never found another kind of disappearing wall for humans to cross in and out. He swallowed, tried to pick any wind or any vibration to no avail and then started turning forth and back, pawing the door a couple of times and trying to check for humans alternatively.

It was right after one of those turns that he suddenly noticed, something was freezing his mind; he found himself standing still, ears pointed back, and realized there was something out there (or, well, in there) to look for. Carefully turned around and quickly glanced at the weird trees, and it was right by one of them that he saw her eyes, inquisitively examining him, the form of the Nidorina sat at a corner.

The Nidorino shaked for a moment and swallowed again, looked back. The female was somewhat larger than himself, and seemed to be fairly more aged as well. She was inside, she was a trained Pokémon after all and not a hlessi the male thought, picking some clues from her rough flank and her clean, slightly sharpened claws and her… possessive demeanour? As he did, he felt himself being examined as well, but beyond some blinks the Nidorina gave no indication whatsoever if she liked what she saw.

Come on, boy, he reminded himself, just like you practised. You got yourself this far.

<…H-hello?> he growled faintly while stepping forwards.

Not much of a response, the Nidorina simply shifted her ears a couple of times, probably checking for the same sounds he was, and then simply leaned on the weird tree, her chest moving slightly with her breathing. The male was not to give up though, he was young and confident in his top-percentageness.

<I'm Baluarkos and I'm very healthy!> he growled, louder this time. He moved in a couple of steps and presented his flank, turned around a couple of times to show he was (just a bit!) confident with his surroundings. <I beat that blue… wall… thing!>

That seemed to definitively trigger a reaction in the Nidorina. Baluarkos saw her move her head a bit, look at the door behind him for a moment and them at him again. For whatever reason, the female then leaned onwards and let her forepaws rest on the ground, her face drawing something similar to a smile, a telltale sign that she wanted to see more of him.

He smiled back as well, felt his body tense. Circled around a couple of times, then looked back at the blue-ish wall and back at the female, who blinked. He had to show he was strong, he reminded himself that the female had probably missed him scaring the foul wall into letting him in. So perhaps another display…

He assumed a threatening posture again as he turned at the door and aimed his horn at it. Just as before, no response, so he took a couple of steps back, buffing as malely as he could. His feet suddenly caught a minute difference in the texture of the ground that surprised him, he stopped and looked down, after a moment he heard the female giggling. Ears down and blushing he looked back at her and saw her sitting on her hindlegs this time, her pupils dilated, she replied coyly tilting her head.

<I'm great, I can do this~>, he said to himself tilting his head like the female did.

So after a moment he shaked himself and thumped at the ground, ready to challenge. Even though he could not see it he could feel the Nidorina staring at him with interest. He let out his Leer and roared at the door, with the already expected lack of response, he puffed his chest, he'd have to do this the hard way. Girls dig boys who go the hard way, his troop leader said. So be it, ears down, legs well spread, focus on the door... a couple of thumps, and charge!

Outside

The blue-ish door was quick to met his strong charge with the tremor and the high-pitched sound, and in a moment Baluarkos saw the wall slide away into nothingness just in time for him to proudly cross to the outside. He stopped right on his track and found himself right where he was before entering, could see the thicket and the hrududu from before, with one of his troop buddies intently looking down the street from behind it. He let out a very specific growl, which called the attention of his buddy, and then turned back to look at the Nidorina.

<…See? I'm strong! I have a good flow (a burrow) by a creek!> he added, pointing with his paw to the forests to the east.

The Nidorina giggled for a moment and leaned on the ground again, looking at him with barely closed eyes and her claws dug on the ground, as if she was having fun watching him. Baluarkos, not used to the feeling, blushed and shaked his body for a moment. The two Nidoran looked at each other for a moment, she moving her ears in apparently random directions while he was leaning left and right, not letting her out of his sight.

<You're funny…> she said suddenly, in a low enough tone that Baluarkos barely picked it. But that was all he needed. Her call was coy and gruff, her voice sounded even older than Baluarkos had presumed, didn't know what do do about that but with what followed he didn't care.

She waited for a moment and then made an inviting motion with her head, the Nidorino blinked and smugly growled at nowhere. He stood quiet for a moment, breathing calmly as if playing hard to get, then the female repeated the gesture.

<I'm Inka>, she growled then slid her claws by the ground besides her.

Baluarkos felt like top-percentage. He assumed a calm posture, then walked towards her.

Then he felt a tremor just like what he felt when the found the blue wall again and… no, no…

<…Nooo!>

Eyes wide open and claws ready, the Nidorino rushed at the open space trying to reach the female, but before getting any far he found his field of vision obstructed by the blue and felt a strong thud, having bumped on the closing door. He bounded back somewhat ungracefully and then roared at the blue-ish wall. It was there again, as if nothing had happened, blocking his way. The Nidorino scratched the door a couple of times to no effect, then stepped back and looked it up.

<…Rrrrr... No! I'm hers! I'll have you for this!> he yelled at the door.

Inside

Still resting on the corner of Aisle 3, Inka continued to giggle as he watched the young male through the semitransparent door panel. She ran her claws on the empty ground besides her and amused herself watching the obviously recently evolved Nidorino bump on the door a couple of times, lean on it with both forelegs, poke it with his horn and apparently call it ela (Enemy) and other names.

Inka found it fun to play games with the various Pokémon from the forest who came down to the city to try their luck. Some of them were Nidos, and some of them were actually smart, but all of them fell easily in the trap of the closing door and reacted in various, funny ways.

The Nidorino outside stepped back a couple of steps and charged at the door. Inka sat and blinked as she saw the male crash against the door, his horn leaving a dent on the panel.

<…That's going to call some attention> she told herself, then retreating a couple of steps to hide.

She had to admit, this one was at least a bit smarter, or a bit more eager, or perhaps just a bit luckier than the others. He had gotten inside the store by his own means. Teasing him had been very fun, in particular the face the poor boy put in the microsecond he realized that the door was going to close again.

Then she heard angry footsteps coming from the aisle behind her and she moved away in time to see one of the human clerks, carrying a box. The human turned at the door and as soon as he saw the dent on the panel let out a scream followed with the usual human rant about the stray Pokémon. Inka saw the human quickly trade the box for an iron shovel and headed to the door, which opened right after the Nidorino had tried to Double Kick it in his rage.

Inka felt something coming from the outside, peeked from behind her corner to see the stunned male quickly scan the store, not noticing Inka, then look up at the human who was about to shoo him. And she sensed the scent of an Arcanine in the distance.

<…Hray, yen u!> she hissed, instructing him to run. Just run.

He picked her voice, his ear turned to her direction for a brief moment, but before he could do anything else he was forced to turn tail and run away, beyond the thicket, to reach his troop as the clerk followed for a couple of meters, swinging his shovel. And while Inka could not see, she could listen, and she sighed as she realized the Nidorino's troop was quickly rushing away as a police cart with a couple of officers and likely a couple of Arcanines pulled by next street.

Inka frowned at the human past the door. She decided to return to her Trainer before he figured out anything had happened, to spare themselves any trouble. If she was any lucky, with him busy buying various human-food groceries, he wouldn't have even noticed she was gone to have fun~

Outside

A couple of minutes later, the five males that comprised the troop were running across a deserted street uphill, trying to reach a creek that led to the edge of the forest. One or two streets behind two female Arcanine were chasing, firing a couple of Flamethrowers, Roaring at them and quickly catching up.

<Oh, she wants me…> Baluarkos yelled, in between excited gasps for air. <I know she wants me.>

For the young boy the rush towards the forest fell like a smug stroll that day.