Mystery Gift Delivery Girl (Pokémon)

[Floating Feather]

Title: Mystery Gift Delivery Girl
Author: Floating Feather
Fandom/Original: Pokémon
Summary: A short story.  The mystery gift delivery girl waits to give a Pokémon away, and tries to outlast her cat allergy.
Author's Notes: February was the month of Mew.  In honor of that...

===============================================================================

"HAAAAHHSHHHOOOOO!  HAHHSHHOOO!  HAHHCHOOOO!"

The Pokémon Center is now empty, save for the nurse on duty and an attendant standing by the counter, her brown hair tossed into motion as she bends forward to release a fit of sneezes.

She had now been here for several hours.  Usually the delivery wasn't such a problem; anyone who wanted a Mystery Gift usually picked it up right away, only a few minutes after the message was sent out.  But now, she was beginning to wonder if they would come at all.

Dressed as all attendants must, she wears a navy jacket over a thin, lighter blue long-sleeved shirt.  Her shorts match her outfit, her legs bare until they reach plain white socks and a pair of blue shoes.  The only different color is a yellow tie emerging from the top of her shirt, and tucked immediately down into the vest again.

Maybe the worst part of the job is not being noticed.  In the case she did fail to hold her sneezing in and explode into a fit around a trainer, she wonders if she would be noticed for it.  Even the nurse on duty didn't seem to give her any sort of attention, simply going about her work mechanically.  Everyone is just too used to her standing here, keeping a straight face.

The itch in her nose leaves along with the Pokémon and trainer, the doors sliding shut.  The chime of her watch makes her jump, unexpected.  Six o' clock.  Only a few more hours until she could trade shifts with another brunette and be free of the idle standing that the job entails.  She exhales through her nose, lifting a finger to rub underneath it.

Trainers come and go.  It's constantly busy.  She watches expectantly, hoping to be approached, but none of them ever do.  Most are in and out quickly, but some aren't as fast about their business, meandering about the Pokémon Center and talking to others that have shown up.  Those ones are the worst.  Not that there's anything bad about them inherently, it's just the problems they bring with them that cause the attendant issues.  One by one they leave, leaving just a pair, each with a monster out...

Her nose begins itching, the tickle slowly crawling deeper.  She scrunches her nose, and tries to wiggle it back and forth in a vain attempt to make it stop reacting to the fur in the air.  "C'mon... that one's not even a cat, is it?" she mutters to herself.  A white-furred Pokémon with a big red stripe from its ear to its eye, and another on its chest.  She sniffs, and feels the tickle moving far back.  "Ah..."  Her mouth drops open, hanging there as her eyelids droop.  "Aaah... hhh...!"

She hears the door rush open.  She opens her eyes to see the trainer exit, taking along the white, furry creature that plagued her.  Sniffling, her allergies flare up again, the fur and dander having yet to leave the air.  An electronic voice breaks the silence, startling her again.  "Zangoose, the Cat Ferret Pokémon."  The other trainer's Pokédex gives her news she doesn't want to hear.  She rubs her nose, then tries to fan her face, but the tingling in her nostrils is winning.

"AAAhh..."  Not with the trainer around, please...!  "AAAAHhhh..."  Stupid... stupid cat hair!  "AAAAAAAAHHHH!"  Her head cranes back... "AH.. AAAHHH!!"

"HHHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"  The sound of a girl with cat allergies breaks the silence.

She realizes she's bent over, and straightens herself up with a sniffle, trying not to frown.  A finger rubs beneath her nose, and her eyes dart to the remaining trainer, who she finds to be looking at her.  Her face shifts red, slowly smearing with a blush.  That could have been more graceful...  "Sorry." she whispers, quietly enough that even she has trouble hearing herself.  Nobody else caught that word; she's still basically invisible.

There's still the other trainer and the nurse, but the former goes to leave, and the other has been fairly quiet and composed the whole time, serving whoever comes in with grace and poise.  She has to be that way, given the permanency of the position.  Meanwhile, the girl in blue realizes how temporary the delivery business is by comparison.  Well, it's supposed to be temporary, anyway.  Right now it feels permanent.

Another hour ticks by uneventfully, errant allergic tickles still lingering to harassing her nose from time to time.  With a painful slowness, time ticks away until it's eight thirty.  Eight forty.  Eight fifty.  She glances to the nurse, who's been here the whole time, wondering where that type of tempered endurance and dedication stems from.  She could never do something like that.  Her head twists towards the doorway as a trainer enters.

She holds back a groan of annoyance.  She's off at nine, and at eight fifty two, a trainer with a Liepard walks in through the door.  The purple, leopard-spotted cat's eyes land on her.  Maybe it knows her weakness already.  It almost seems to smirk as it approaches, tail waving proud and high in the air, battle-loosened fur drifting free as it moves.

A whirl of red light makes it disappear, soaked back into its spherical container.  She holds back her sigh of relief, too.  The red-haired nurse takes each of five spheres and places them in rounded out spots on the healing machine.  The images of Pokémon appear on the screen above it.  Liepard, Persian, Delcatty, Purugly, Pyroar.  All cats, how novel.  The delivery girl holds back yet another reaction, which is laughing.  That would be her luck, right?  None of them are free, but the trainer is likely covered in hair.  Despite herself, she sniffs, feeling her nose become slightly runnier.

She notices something she hadn't noticed before, which is the redness of the nurse's nose.  While she's turned away from the trainer, she sniffles, and lifts a hand to rub a finger beneath her nostrils.  It's an intriguing break from the perfect grace she was previously displaying.  It couldn't be the cats though; she wasn't having any reactions earlier, and she barely moved from the spot since then.

...Or could it?  As the hands the Poké Balls back, the Liepard suddenly frees itself from the red and white sphere it was trapped in, and stretches its body out on the counter.  Its long tail whips out, gliding past the nurse's nose both on its way to the left and to the right.  In response, she places her hand under her nose again and sniffles.  "Excuse me, could you p-please remove your c-c-aaht from the counter?"

The Dark-type looks remarkably pleased with itself.  "Sure.  Liepard, get down from there."  Another flick of its tail ensues as it hops down, dealing double damage: The nurse gets one last touch from its tail as it turns to jump, and it lands immediately in front of the delivery girl, whose eyes widen in surprise.  She's not especially tall, and while the leopard is holding itself so proudly, its tail comes exactly up to her face.  Specifically, directly under her nostrils.  She holds her breath.

The evil feline sashays past her, letting its hair brush delicately along her nose.  It slowly circles around her to the back, then crosses in front of her again.  She turns her head up and away, looking in the nurse's direction, and finding the Pokémon caretaker to be lightly sniffling, nearly hitching.  The sight doesn't help any.

"Hi, you have a Mystery Gift for me?"  Being addressed suddenly snaps her out of her daze, and her mind quickly constructs scenarios to free herself from torment.  Almost reflexively, she spits out the line she'd been waiting so long to say.  "Good evening!  You must be Marcus.  I've got a Mystery Gift here with your name on it.  Here you are!"

She hands over the Poké Ball, trying not to do so with haste.  Exactly what's inside isn't something she's privy to, but the excited look on the trainer's face makes up for the ignorance.  "We look forward to serving you agaaa.."  Oh no... not now...!  "Agaah... agaaah..."  The Liepard has found her face again, and she swears it's smirking as it waves its tail beneath her nose, physically tickling her while simultaneously setting her allergies in motion.

Her eyes flutter shut, and her head tilts back.  "AAhhh..."  She feels the cat vanish out from under her, perhaps fleeing the inevitable reaction.  She holds her head back there for a few moments, feeling the twinge in her nose panging at her.  She manages to hang there long enough that it starts to die down, and she slowly opens her eyes, finding the trainer holding a Ball pointed at where the Liepard ought to be.  Sweet, sweet relief.  She can hold it until he gets out the door, and then let loose.

The trainer taps the Ball he was just handed, releasing a pink, long-tailed cat into the air.  The Mew floats in place for a moment as the delivery girl feels a pit drop into her stomach.  The curious feline examines her, drifting closer, and she holds her breath again.  If she's not interesting, maybe it won't pay any attention.

And, to her surprise, it works.  The feline darts away, instead examining the nurse and her red nose.  "Oh, hello there.  Mister trainer sir, could you please..."  She takes a sharp breath.  "Please take your caah... caaah... cat away?  I..."  Oh... the nurse has been standing there for hours with no breaks.  She must have taken something earlier on, and by now, the effect has worn off.  "I..."  Her head cranes back as the floating Psychic-type examines her.

The delivery girl realizes there's something in her field of vision, and follows the Mew's startlingly lengthy tail from its spine to its position under her tickling nose.  "I...  I'm aaaah..!  AAAHHH!  Allergic to CAAAAAHH... AAAAAAAAAHHH!  AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

The nurse releases an explosive sneeze, doubling over the counter, her pinkish-red hair loops spilling into long waterfalls across the countertop.  Her headband falls to the floor in front of it, her blue eyes slightly watery when she gets them open.  The delivery girl gasps upon feeling the cat tail pressed up against her nose, the Mew startled into retreating.  As it does, its tail flails, silky fur gliding underneath her nostrils with an all too familiar sensation.

"AAAAAAAAHHH..."  The tickling is too much now.  The thought of purple and pink cat hair dancing inside her nostrils makes the deliver girl throw her head back, mouth open.  "HAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH..."  "I'm sorry, I'm... AAH... Allergic to cats..." the nurse states.  The brunette sends mental sympathy in her direction.  Who knew she had a partner in allergies all this time?  "They... AAAHH... they make me..."  "HAAAAAAAHHHH..."

The two take turns inhaling.  "Make me hhaaaaahh..."  "AAAAAAAHHHH..."  "HAAAAAAHH... have to... have to... HAAAAAAAAAAHHH..."   "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH...!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"  "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"   "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

"HHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Two sneezes fill the room with sudden noise.  The delivery girl's face grows hot, shifting hues until it becomes noticeably red.  The nurse handles the situation with more grace, sniffling until she doesn't need to anymore.  Seeing the trainer leaving, the gift deliverer opens her mouth to speak and try her flubbed line again.  "We look forward to serving you agaaa..."  There's still cat hair in her nose...

"Agaaah...  agaaah...  AAAAAHH....  HHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!   HHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

"HHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

 

Edited March 1, 2016 by Floating Feather

[MS]

A pokemon story is rare. A pokemon story this enjoyable is even more rare. I really enjoyed this story. It was fun, creative, and I think the two sneezing ladies deserve a little break after that. I loved how it was revealed Nurse Joy herself had a sneezy allergy too but couldn't hide it!  I like this assistant character, and the perspective this story was told in was really cool to me. 

Liepard...you devious feline you. Mew's innocent curiousity and Liepard's clever observation and both of their tails inducing a sneeze from each lady was a treat. I seriously loved reading the build up and the starting tease ^^

Thanks for writing this story! I love pokemon and it's fun to see a story that's rare like this.

[ThePokeFan599]

I loved this story! I stopped watching Pokémon after Advanced Battle, but this story was fantastic. I agree with MS, that Nurse Joy and Office Jenny sneezing stories are some of the BEST on this forum.

[Leafeon78]

Definitively like this love the sneezes

[47Bears]

Sweet mother of arceus, that's amazing