1

Topic: Child's Play - Sakura and Lyuri's Childhood

Special Gift: 10 Years Ago

Sakura and Lyuri always were playing around Floaroma Meadow, due to it having a lot of space and wild Pokémon being rather rare around there, one day they went pretty far into the meadows, then their's father appeared...

"Sakura! I have something for you!" He shouted

Upon hearing him, the girls quickly went to the meadow's entrance to meet with their's dad and both noticed that he was carrying an egg.

"Hi Daddy! What is it?" Asked Sakura, completely oblivous to how obvious it was.

"Duh! It's the egg! Are you blind?!" Said Lyuri, with a small facepalm, not believing that Sakura didn't notice it.

"That's right, it's a special gift I'm giving you. I got it from some friends who are breeders and I decided to give it to you as your first Pokémon." Said the father, handing the egg to Sakura.

"Thanks Daddy!" She said, picking the egg carefully with a big smile on her face, already hugging the egg, but making sure she wouldn't break it.

"And what about me? I'm the older one! I should get my Pokémon before Sakura!" Exclamated Lyuri, the jealously on her voice being clear as a crystal.

With a smirk on his face, he tried to end a possible arguement as quickly as possible "I'll give you one when you start paying attention to the classes, like Sakura does."

The comment made Sakura giggle while Lyuri became a bit embarrassed, she couldn't deny that she slept all the time at school and Sakura always told her parents about it, how she wished Sakura could keep her mouth shut.

"That's not fair..." Said Lyuri, crossing her arms while looking at the side, with a grumpy expression

"Your new Pokémon will hatch from this egg soon Sakura, but for now, let's go home, it's time for lunch!"

"'Kay." Said the siblings, Sakura sounding much more excited than the grumpy Lyuri.

The father then recalled his Absol and him and the sisters then went back home for lunch.

Later that day the egg started to hatch and everybody of the family was watching it hatch, soon enough a Growlithe came from the egg and Sakura was overjoyed as it started to give some cute barks to them.

"Aaaaw! A puppy!" She said as she went to pet the pup in the head, who let her do that with no problems whatsoever.

"Treat it well, and it'll treat you well too Sakura, but you already know that right?" Said her mother, very happy for her daughter as she was already getting along with the Pokémon.

Sakura responded with a simple nod and a smile, but then she thought of something "What are we going to call him?"

"How about Grant? After all it'll get pretty big once it evolves." Said their's father, with a chuckle

"Fine to me! Isn't nice sis? Now I have a pet!" Said Sakura, she was basically irradiating happiness at that moment.

Lyuri just looked at her with a forced smile, trying to hide her envy "Yeah, that's great sis, congratulations..."

Sakura then spent all day playing with her new Pokémon, as if it was a new toy, while Lyuri just watched them playing from afar, Sakura started to spend so much time with Grant that she didn't even pay attention to Lyuri anymore, that wasn't much of a problem since Lyuri had other friends to play with, but everywhere she looked, she saw them playing together with Sakura looking extremely happy with Grant. Seeing that made Lyuri become even more jealous of Sakura for having a Pokémon and no matter how she tried, she never managed get her parents to give her one, which just added even more fuel to those feelings...

2

Re: Child's Play - Sakura and Lyuri's Childhood

Sibling Fight: 10 Years Ago

Sakura was playing with Grant around Floaroma Town, doing typical things like throwing a stick for him to catch and give it back and rubbing his belly when Lyuri came, looking pretty bored.

"Hey sis! How about we go play around the meadow?" She asked, with a yawn soon after, showing how bored she really was.

Sakura then turned to her while bellyrubbing Grant "Ah... Not now sis... I'm playing with Grant here now."

"Oh come on! Let the dog play inside home a bit and let's go!" The annoyance in Lyuri's voice was obvious, which only made poor Sakura nervous.

"W-Why don't you go play with your other friends...?" Sakura then started to hold Grant on her arms as if he was a teddy bear.

"Sure, now that you have your own Pokémon, you don't want to play with me anymore right?! You only care about this stupid dog now!"

Sakura was visibly becoming more and more nervous as Grant started to growl in response to the insult "T-That's not true..." She said, looking at the ground.

"Not only that, but whenever a look at, I see you playing with that thing! It's like you're trying to rub it in my face that you have a Pokémon now!"

Sakura voice was getting progressively weaker as Lyuri resumed her rant "B-But..."

"And if you wouldn't stop gossiping about what I do at school, I probably would have my Pokémon already too! Can't you just keep your mouth shut?!"

Grant was barking a lot at this point and Sakura was about to tear up, Lyuri still looked very irritated as Sakura didn't say anything for a while.

"B-But sis... I only told daddy and mommy those things because I was worried about you, if you were sleeping in class you would get bad grades..."

Lyuri surely didn't buy that one "Well, that didn't do me any good yet!"

Sakura was hugging Grant tightly now and trying her best to not start crying "Why are you being so mean to me...? Daddy told me to stay near you in case something happened, I wasn't trying to show off... I just was doing what he said to me..."

Lyuri's eyes widened about that, Sakura wasn't one to lie, and it did look like it was something her father would want her to do "S-Sorry... I didn't know that..."

"A-And I... I only started to play with Grant because I thought that I taking too much of your time... I just wanted to give you more time to play with your friends, I-I just didn't want to bother you anymore..."

Sakura then started to cry and ran off to her home, still holding Grant who was still barking loudly, leaving Lyuri alone as she finally realized how much of a jerk she was being to her sister.

"W-Wait! Sis!" She said, soon giving chase.

When Sakura arrived at home, she immediatelly went upstairs, sobbing a bit, that didn't go unnoticed by her parents who were going upstairs to see what the problem was, when Lyuri arrived.

"Lyuri, what happened to your sister?" Asked her mother, with a very concerned tone in her voice.

"I-I... I..." Stammered Lyuri, looking at the ground as she didn't to look at her parent's face.

Upstairs, Sakura was petting Grant as she cried and sobbed "I-I think sis doesn't like me anymore..." She said, as Grant started to nuzzle her, she then heard the voice of her parents, scolding Lyuri for what happened, she went closer to the stairs with Grant so she could hear everything more clearly without being seen.

"You shouldn't be so mean to your sister just because you're jealous of her!" Said her father, clearly angry at the girl.

"Sakura needs a Pokémon to make her company more than you right now, you know how she has problems to interact with other kids, so we gave her a pet so that she would let you be free to play with other kids. You should be ashamed of yourself for acting like that to her when you're the person she cares about the most!"

"S-Sorry.." The guilt that Lyuri was feeling was making her feel really bad about the entire thing, she gave a quick glance at the staircase and could briefly see Sakura because once she saw her looking at her's direction, she ran off to her room once again.

Lyuri immediatelly gave chase, ignoring her parents who just looked as she went upstairs, she opened the door to Sakura's room just to find Sakura sitting on her bed and Grant next to the bed, barking.

"S-Sorry for being so mad at you sis... I was just jealous of you! Can you please hold this dog down before he attacks me?!"

With a small giggle, Sakura quickly picked Grant up in her arms, she was still looking a bit sad, but she had a small smile on her face now.

"S-So... Do you still like me, sis?" She said, still a bit nervous.

"If anything, you should be the one that didn't like me anymore. Sorry sis... I think I was just jealous of you. Are you mad at me?"

Sakura shakes her head as she starts to pet Grant in the head, she then gives a truly happy smile.

"Just... Don't do this again ok? If there's a problem, you should just tell me."

Lyuri then smiles and gives a nod, she would try to hug her sister now, but the Growlithe in her arms could bite her at any minute.

The following day, Lyuri and Sakura were both playing with Grant, Lyuri threw a stick, but accidentally hit Sakura's head with it and Grant almost immediatelly pounced on her, knocking her to the ground.

"Oooow...!" Said Sakura, as Grant started to lick in her face, she then started giggling as if nothing had happened, she then got up after taking Grant off her.

"S-Sorry" Said Lyuri, also giggling with what happened until Sakura threw the stick at her as payback, when she saw Grant running in her direction she immediatelly ran away "Aaaah! Don't let him get close to me!" She yelled as she ran home, without noticing that Grant just picked the stick and gave it back to Sakura

"I guess she's scared of you now, how silly~" She then giggled as she picked the stick and started swinging it back and forth, while Grant followed it with his eyes non-stop, with only made Sakura laugh even more before she threw the stick again.

3

Re: Child's Play - Sakura and Lyuri's Childhood

Cherry Search: 10 Years Ago

Sakura was sitting on her house's door step, looking at a picture book with Grant lying on the ground right in front of her when Lyuri came carrying a small bag.

"Hey sis! What's up?" Asked Lyuri, with a happy expression on her face as she came closer.

"Hi sis! I was looking at these pictures, don't you think this Pokémon is really pretty?" She then shows the picture of a Sunshine Cherrim on the book to her before speaking in a very cheerful tone "I'd really want to have one!"

"Hm... Didn't we see some Cherubi around the meadow a few times? I think we can catch one for you with honey!" Lyuri then picked two Ultra Balls from the bag "And look at what I found lying on the ground just a few minutes ago!"

"Oooh! This can work! Let's look for Cherubis then!" Said Sakura, looking pretty excited.

"We just need to pick some honey and put it in some trees, you put one in one of the trees of the meadow! I'll put some in the Valley Windworks!"

"Ok!"

The two then went inside the house to pick some honey and soon came back while Grant was waiting for them outside, they soon came back both carrying a pot full of honey and looking pretty excited to start the hunt, they soon went their separate ways while waving goodbye to each other, Grant of course followed Sakura. The meadow was pretty as always, full of flowers around a big field, Sakura stopped for a few seconds to admire the flowers, but she soon went to one of the trees.

"So we just put honey in the tree and wait... Seems easy!" Said Sakura as she put honey on the tree and soon went to hide in a nearby bush with Grant, while she waited she was playing a bit with Grant.

Meanwhile, Lyuri was in the Valley Windworks and looking at the many windmills there, she also took her time to look at some wild Buizel and Pachirisu that were around, she then slathered some honey in the tree and kept waiting.

It sure took a long time for a Pokémon to appear, at least for Sakura who ended up waiting for a few hours just to find a Combee, Lyuri had the same results too.

"This isn't as exciting as I thought..." Said both of them, with a sigh.

Later the two then met again at home, both looking a bit frustated.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Maybe we should try again tomorrow, I'm sure we'll find one!" Said Sakura, trying to keep herself optimistic.

The following day, they tried again with the same results and kept trying, the results started to vary a bit, they started to find Aipoms, Heracross, Burmies, Wurmples, Silcoon, Cascoon... But no Cherubi, after weeks trying and having to buy a lot of honey, the last nail in the coffin though, was when Lyuri found a Munchlax.

"OH COME ON!" Said her as she emerged from the bush, much to the Munchlax confusion.

She then simply gave up and went to check up Sakura on the meadow, looking pretty tired of doing that over and over again, in the meadow she saw Sakura collecting some flowers with Grant's assistance.

"Hi sis... Any luck?" Said Lyuri, looking pretty depressed.

"No... You look sad." Answered Sakura, worried about her sister.

"This is getting so boring... And I just wanted to help you catch a mon, but this is just being a waste of time" Said Lyuri, looking at the ground and giving a sad sigh.

"Aaw... Don't worry sis, we don't need to catch one now! Maybe later, let's go home and forget about this, all right?" Said Sakura, trying to cheer Lyuri up by patting her in the head.

"All right... Let's go."

The sister then headed outside the meadow together, Lyuri looking a bit better now, Grant was a bit behind, but when he saw the tree that Sakura had slathered with honey, he saw a little Cherubi eating the honey happily. But he just ignored it and went back to the sisters, since he didn't actually know how the Pokémon they were searching for looked like.

4

Re: Child's Play - Sakura and Lyuri's Childhood

Give and Receive: 10 Years Ago

It was Christmas eve and the Riese family had an habit of only decoring the Christmas tree on that day, Lyuri and Sakura were  of course helping with it, both looked really happy while doing it with their parents. Both sister were in winter clothing due to how chilly it was, they were even using Christmas caps.

"So! What do you want for Christmas, sis? That fancy dress that you saw in that store?" Asked Lyuri, looking really excited as she  put some more decorations on the tree.

"It's a surprise~" Said Sakura, as she happily handed her mother another box full of Christmas balls "But I did ask for a few things for Grant, some toys so I have more things to do with him! And you?"

"It's... Um... A secret"" Said Lyuri, she looked a bit embarrassed, maybe it was something funny.

Grant then came with his own Christmas cap on head, it was painful for Sakura to manage to put that on him, but alas, she did it, just the sight of the Growlithe made both sisters smile.

"I'm so excited, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight!" Said Lyuri, with the biggest smile on her face.

"But if you don't, you will be too tired to play with what you'll get dear." Said their mother, putting some of the balls in the higher parts of the tree since it was a pretty big one.

"So, try to have a good night of sleep so you'll have a lot of energy tomorrow!" Said their father

"But it's hard to sleep with all the suspence, maybe we'll get something more other than what we asked!" Said Sakura

"Yeah! Maybe I'll get a Pokémon as a bonus!" Said Lyuri

"So you DIDN'T ask for a Pokémon?" Said all three of them with a genuine look of surprise in their faces.

"Why the surprised look?" Asked Lyuri, giving all of them a stern look

The three of them laughed a bit at Lyuri's expense a bit, embarrassing the girl as they did so. Time passed and they finished decoring the tree and the sister went to sleep at their's own rooms,  but Sakura was just sitting on her bed with her legs out of it while Grant was just looking at her from the bedside as both were unable to sleep.

"Hey Grant, do you think I'm going to get something else other than that?" She asked, swinging her legs and looking at the ceiling still with her cap on her head.

Grant, who still had the cap on, simply shot her a rather confused look, not knowing exactly what she was talking about, Sakura just smiled upon seeing the Growlithe's reaction and laid on her bed, taking the cap off.

"Nevermind... Good night, Grant." She said as she turned the lights off and started sleeping.

Time passed as Sakura slept, but she waked up a bit after that due to feeling a bit thirsty, coupled with the heat she was feeling thanks to the clothing she was wearing, she opened her door to go drink some water at the kitchen, but she ended up waking Grant up, who just reacted with a yawn.

"Oh, sorry for waking you up, if you want, you can come with me." Whispered Sakura, as she walked off

Unsurprisingly, Grant followed the girl downstairs, upon going there Sakura decided to not turn on the lights since it could end up waking up somebody, but she stepped on something that made her stop to see what it was: the star that somehow fell down from the tree not that she looked at it, she also saw something under it, the presents!

"The presents! They arrived!" Exclamated Sakura, in a low voice so she wouldn't wake up anybody, "Should I look at them...? But... There's no way to know which one is mine, I don't wanna open Lyuri's by accident." Wondered the girl as she then saw the star she was carrying "Oh... I'll just put the star back, get my drink, and wait until it's morning!"

Sakura then moved to the tree, and with the help of one chair she dragged near it, she tried to put it back into place, however one bark from Grant, who was pretty worried about her and thought she was going to fall, was all it took to startle her and make her fall of the chair and she grabbed the tree to not fall, however the extra weight made the tree fall over her and one of the presents. Like any normal five year old, Sakura started to cry as loud as she could and of course that woke up her parents and sister, who immediatelly came downstairs to see what was going on just to see Sakura next to the tree since Grant helped her out.

"Sakura! What happened?!" Said both of her parents, clearly worried and looking at all the mess.

"Hey! The presents arrived!" Said Lyuri, who lost her focus completely upon seeing one of the gift box.

"I-I tried to put the star back on the tree and then..." She then started to cry again, but that was enough to understand what happened.

After a while Sakura stopped crying and they all put the tree back into it's place, Sakura then looked at a completely destroyed gift box and began to open it with a look of guilt on her face as she did so, for her surprise what was inside was... Something broken, really broken beyond repair. Meanwhile Lyuri opened another box and found inside a bunch of plushies inside, of various mons.

"Um... Is this you-" She then noticed what Sakura was holding as she looked at her "AH! That's my present! You broke it!"

"I-I'm... I'm sorry sis, that was an accident." Replied Sakura, holding the box and looking ready to cry again.

"That's not fair! She messed up and I paid the price!"

Clearly upset, Lyuri bolted upstairs while Sakura didn't even look at her, Grant was feeling just as bad as Sakura since he was the one who caused that disaster, even when being comforted by her parents, Sakura still felt really bad at having ruined Christmas for her sister and after a while, she went upstairs feeling really down and went to sleep, or rather, buried her head on a pillow and started crying all night.

In the following day, it was snowing as  Lyuri was at the doorstep of her house looking at the ground covered in snow, still upset over everything, her parents tried talking to her so she wouldn't blame Sakura for what happened, but she still didn't like what happened one bit. One of Lyuri's friends, a boy, then appeared at her home and saw her state.

"Hey Lyuri! You look mad..." Said him, a bit worried about what could've happened.

"Sakura destroyed my Christmas present before I even got to play with it, now she's all sad and avoiding me, not like I want to see her myself." She explained, still looking quite grumpy.

"Sad? I saw her just a few minutes ago and she was looking pretty happy." Commented the boy, looking rather puzzled.

"She already moved on then. Look, I really don't want to talk now..."

"Okay then... Later."

The boy then waved to her and left her alone. Lyuri stayed in the same place for a long time, not feeling like doing anything that day, she kept looking at the ground and didn't notice anything that was going on until suddenly she saw a pair of boots and paws that were way too familiar to her, she looked up and saw Sakura holding a gift box with a smile on her face, she was with her Christmas cap on her head, and so was Grant besides her.

"Is that..." Said Lyuri, with a surprised look.

"Yep! It's that game thingy you wanted for Christmas! I bought it for you myself!" Said Sakura, with a big smile.

"But... But that was way too expensive! How did you buy that?!" Replied Lyuri, in disbelief.

"Remember all that money I was saving, for when I was going to buy something really important? I saved a looot of money and I had just enough to buy this for you!"

"But... Didn't you want that really fancy dress? If you could buy this, you could buy that too." Lyuri was still in disbelief of what was just happening in front of her, her wide open eyes made it easy to notice.

"It's still Christmas sis, and Christmas is about giving and receiving, I already received, so it's time to give, it wouldn't be fair otherwise."

Lyuri was overjoyed by that, but she then looked at Sakura and started to look at the ground, "... Now I have to give you something too, and I don't have money to buy you anything..." She said.

Sakura then giggled "How about a hug? I sure need one after seeing that I could buy the dress and that now I have to save even more money." She joked, trying to keep Lyuri's spirits up.

Lyuri then smiled and almost immediatelly she glomped her "BEST SISTER EVER!" She said as the two fell to the ground, with the gift box landing on the snow next to them.

The sisters then sitted on the snow as Grant jumped on Sakura's arms and looked at each other as Grant started to lick Sakura in the face, they then started to laugh, Lyuri then put the gift box inside home and came back, much to Sakura's surprise.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Asked Sakura, puzzled.

"Later! I want to enjoy some time with my sister first!" Answered Lyuri, looking pretty happy.

Sakura then smiled and got up, the sister then started to play around in the snow together with Grant, having the time of their's lives as the snowflakes gently fell on the ground.

"Best day ever!" Said both sisters while they were making snow angels one alongside each other.