The sounds of waves calmly lapping at the shoreline was audible, each soaking the sand beneath it before retreating for another pass. The various water pokemon that inhabited the shallow waters swam about, making sure to not be pulled onto land lest the less land-worthy ones have to try and flop back into the water. The shore in question was part of a small island just a short distance from Pacifidlog Town, often used as a form of retreat from those who grow weary from battles, be it trainer or pokemon.

One human walked along the sands of the beach, arms folded behind their head. Said human was female, wearing a pair of dark blue jeans that were loose around the legs to allow comfort while mobile, fading to black towards the bottom of them. The upper body had a black tee with a red vest over it, a pair of dark-red metal-framed glasses resting in front of the scarlet pair of eyes. Dark brown hair reaching down towards the shoulders swayed from the light breeze due to her movement, a majority of the strands having red highlights, one part lit up from the reflection of a watch that hung from the females left wrist.

Her name was Ruby, currently taking the time on her island to have a lengthy break from all the travel and training she has done. A good friend of hers, Buck, was said to meet her here, but seeing that said person isn't in the area, she let out a sigh as she felt that he was running a bit late. She looked around a bit, mainly to try and find the odd rock that would be mostly buried in the sand, largely since she didn't want to sit down on the sand itself and have to go through the hassle of getting every grain of it off of her jeans at a later time. She was able to spot one, starting to make her way over towards it, each step of hers pressing down into the sand before lifting up.

When she got close though, she heard the sound of a large amount of water being displaced, looking over and saw what looked like a pillar of water forming on the surface of it. The pillar soon erupted as a large figure flew out of it, Ruby yelping as she backed up, ending up stumbling when the figure landed, showing it to be a blastoise that was just a couple of feet taller than her.

“Blast…” it sounded out as it stretched in its spot, seeing the human close by starting to get up.

“A…a blastoise…?!” Ruby stammered under her breath, taking a hesitant step back when she fully stood up in her spot. She was about to start running, seeing that her pokemon were at the poke-center that was on the island, until she heard a different voice sound out.

“Geez Hydro…can you be a little easier on the landfall?”

Ruby felt her fear melting away, letting out a sigh as she was able to recognize the voice, smiling a bit as she looked up to the side of the blastoise. Climbing off of it was another human, one she immediately recognized as Buck, smiling a bit as she approached him.

“Well, guess you had to take the scenic underwater route or something?” Ruby asked him with a small grin.

When Buck landed on the sand, he looked over to Ruby, chuckling a bit as he rubbed the back of his head. “Well…sorta like that. Waters looked like were getting pretty rough around the island, so I had to have Hydro dive under to go past them. Thankfully, the underwater currents were much more forgiving down there.” he explained, lowering his hand as he smiled at Ruby. “So, I guess all your pokemon are at the center?” Buck asked shortly after.

“Yeah, they are.” was Ruby's answer. “Nurse Joy is healing them up as we speak. Figured I could take the time to walk around for a bit, maybe even meet you somewhere on the island.”

“Heh, right.”

“Toise…” Hydro sounded out, the two humans looking up at the larger blastoise.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Buck replied, reaching to a small pokeball on his waist and unclasped it. A simple press of the center and the sphere grew to the size of that of a softball, pointing it to Hydro. A nod was his response before being enveloped in red energy, fading and then being pulled into the device, the ball being put back in its spot. “So, what shall we do while we're here?” he asked Ruby once he turned his gaze back to her.

“Maybe find a spot to relax at?” Ruby suggested, her previous spot prior to meeting Buck void to her now.

“Sure. Any ideas on where?”

“Hmm…not really. Think we can try to find one while we walk?”

“Alright.” a nod came from Buck, smiling as he and Ruby started to walk along the beach, exchanging stories as they went.

-0-

Several hours later

The duo were able to find a spot after a while, having recently had dinner for the day. The sun was close to setting as they were walking to the spot they agreed upon, Ruby having also found out of a silver wing pendant that Buck had. It was then that Buck had made up a story of having met the great Lugia while he was in Johto, even having fought the beast, when in reality he had actually got the replica from a gift shop at Cianwood City.

After almost twenty minutes of walking from the island hotel, Ruby and Buck neared the location they picked, it being a small garden plaza near the southern cliffs of the island. Thankfully, not that many trainers come to this particular plaza, preferring plazas that are to the east and west, largely due to the sunrises or sunsets of each day. Several benches were scattered among the area, which would allow any visitors to rest. The main reason why they picked this spot was mainly for the calm waves that would sound from down below, as well as the view out to the mainland Hoenn.

“So, are you going to show me that 'magic trick' you were talking about during dinner?” Ruby asked as she stood next to a plaza lamp, leaning against it as she smiled at her friend.

Buck chuckled a small bit, taking a couple of steps back and lifted his hands to the pendant, holding them to either side of it. “Alright. Well, here goes.” he said, clearing his throat as well.

“Oh powers that will always be; Allow me to become a guardian of the sea!” he chanted in a small rhyme, Ruby watching with interest, wondering if Buck was telling the truth about this part.

Nothing seemed to happen, Buck having a nervous smile slowly come to his face, a sweat-drop forming as Ruby was starting to chuckle after a minute.

“You didn't actually meet the lugia, did you?” she asked, grinning slightly as well.

“W-well…maybe…” Buck replied, glancing away with a blush of embarrassment on his face, the silver wing pendant swaying slightly from the movement.

Ruby only laughed in response, furthering Bucks embarrassment.

“Ah, cheer up. Both of us do have a chance of actually meeting it on our travels.” Ruby assured, getting up from her spot, walking over to her friend.

Buck smiled a bit as he glanced to Ruby, though both of their attention was drawn to a glow that was coming from the silver wing. Both confusion and awe were mixed in between the two, soon turning into surprise when the wing seemed to shatter, small dots of light being the fragments of it. Both humans looked at them with awe, wondering what was going on with the phenomena. It soon resulted in Buck jolting back when all the fragments flew into him, and to their relief without any signs of injury.

“Well that was…something.” Ruby stated after a moment of silence, Buck laying a hand on the spot that the fragments went in.

“Yeah. Didn't really think it would do that.” he replied, looking back to Ruby.

Ruby was about to state something else, but was cut off by Buck seeming to double over, his arms wrapped around his chest. The action had Ruby gasp, Buck feeling something wrong going on inside of him.

“Nnnnrgh…” he groaned out, his eyes squeezing shut in response to the extreme discomfort welling up inside of him.

She couldn't think of what to do, stepping back nervously as it looked like Buck was slowly growing in his spot, his skin slowly turning to silvery-white in color. She wanted to run, but she didn't want to abandon her friend, swallowing nervously as she made her decision to stay, seeing Buck's body continuing to alter.

The clothing that he wore stretched to try and accommodate his growing form, though easily reached their limits. It wasn't long until the sounds of them ripping were heard, the shirt splitting apart all around and at the seams of it. Instead of the normal skin tone that Buck had though, it shown a navy-blue colored belly, silvery-white around it. The area the navy blue color formed a bit of a tear drop, though the tip of it was double-tipped instead of a single one. It slowly swelled out, layers of blubber being added to the altering human, the shirt now nothing but tatters barely clinging to his body. Ten short and thin flaps grew out from the back, each of them the same navy blue in color, each of them folding down onto his back slightly after each one of them fully grew out.

His arms were also victim to these changes, both having swelled drastically in size, especially the hands, having grew larger and flattened. They both seemed to have taken on the appearance of flat wings, both still keeping a resemblance to hands, if not rather vague. The both of them pressed against the belly, each 'finger' of them pressing in slightly as the altering human continued growing.

The legs were third in the alteration, both of them having moved up slightly to the sides, both of them swelling with mutating muscle. An audible snap sounded out, making both humans – or rather human and altering human – wince at such, the legs having 'broken' to form another join in them. Thankfully for Buck, it didn't harm him, if not cause a rather large amount of discomfort. The jeans he wore were now simple shreds, and so were the shoes once the last portion of seam burst free from its spot. Not even the socks were spared, having stretched to their limits before tearing as well. While all the changes were happening, the spine lengthened as a tail started to grow out, easily reaching down to the ground as a pair of spikes grew out from either side of it close to the tip, both navy blue as well.

The head was last to change for the whole process, the neck lengthening greatly and increasing the 'human's' overall height. His skull morphed as the front of it started to push out, curving downward to form a kind of beak while the back pushed out into a spike. Even the inside of his mouth was changing, wincing as he felt each and every one of his teeth being forcibly pushed out of their spots, able to hear them 'clack' against the cobblestone below. In their place two fangs grew out, though he could feel several more coming to be, the ones that were longest most likely the most visible. A couple of plates formed around his eyes, pulling out towards the rear of his head, yet again navy blue in color while his pupils became slitted, the irises becoming a ruby red in color.

The last of the changes came to a halt, the human having now fully become a lugia, the creature he told about in the stories he spoke of earlier. Ruby could only stare up at Buck in shock, the creature whom easily towered over her at nearly twenty-five feet if standing fully upright. The lugia however, took in a gasp, feeling utterly exhausted due to a form of unknown adrenaline that was flowing through his body during the transformation now wearing off, flopping forward but caught himself with his wing-hands. He breathed heavily as his head hung close to the ground, eyes squeezed shut as Ruby stood close by, a hand close to her mouth as her face showed worry. She couldn't believe in what she had witnessed, seeing her own friend becoming a lugia himself, trying to gather whatever courage she had to try and approach him.

“B…Buck…” she muttered under her breath, slowly taking a step forward. She ended up taking the step back though when she saw the lugia lift his head up a bit, seeing his gaze meeting hers.

“Ruby…” he said weakly, continuing to take breaths in and out “…what just…happened…?”

“I…I think you just…became a lugia.” Ruby answered, slowly walking towards him again, now having gotten over her fear.

The lugias eyes seemed to dilate a bit, a smile soon starting to form on his face, slowly pushing himself up once his energy had returned, looking himself over. Ruby looked up to him, seeing his expression brighten over time, even hearing the occasional minor laugh. When Buck noticed the shreds of clothing on his body and around his spot, human decency took over as his joyful expression easily vanished, his face turning crimson as he meekly looked up to Ruby, quickly covering the front part of his body with his wing-hands.

“Oh ah, hum…well, this is…rather embarrassing now…” he stammered as his face turned even more crimson, Ruby bursting out into laughter.

“Buck, relax. I don't think that a lugia has the…well, you know…” Ruby stated up to him, occasionally laughing at how silly the lugia looked as of now.

The blush on Buck's face seemed to lighten as he slowly lowered his wing-hands, though it lit back up when a loud grumble sounded out, Ruby jumping as she quickly looked around.

“A-a-a-a monster…?!” she stammered, fear coming back into her tone.

“No…just…my stomach is all.” the lugia answered, looking down to his belly, lifting a wing-hand and lightly pressed the navy blue skin with it.

Hearing an 'oh' from Ruby, Buck saw her relax, but was able to even feel her emotions calm as well, surprised at such before a thought struck him.

“Um…what am I going to eat?”

Seeing Ruby jolt, he knew that his hunger – most likely caused due to the aftermath of the transformation – just ended up making things rather complicated.

“Oh boy…can't really go to the hotel now. Cause one heck of an uproar among anyone there…” she murmured, putting a hand to her chin as she started to pace back and forth in her spot.

Buck tried to think of a solution as well, plopping down in his spot. It made the ground shake, having Ruby stumble a bit but was quickly forgiven after an apology was issued. A thought did come to mind but he easily brushed it aside, knowing that he would never do such. As the minutes wore on and another grumble of his stomach sounded out though, his insistence to avoid the scenario was starting to wane, letting out a sigh as he looked to Ruby, whom was sitting down at one of the benches.

“Hey…Ruby?” he started, doing a light swallow to try and calm himself, knowing that he could easily end up scaring her.

The girl snapped out of whatever train of thought she was in, looking over to the lugia. “Yeah?”

He wanted to ask her such, but the fear that was easily welling up was starting to become overwhelming. Ruby was able to see that he was uneasy about something, getting up from her spot and walked up to him, placing a hand on his belly. The touch was rather soft and somewhat surprising to the lugia, a small smile coming to his beak as he moved a wing-hand over to her. It was almost the same size if not just a bit larger than her, easily covering her in a form of hug up against the blue belly. What was assumed to be flesh was rather feathers on it, each of them folded down and woven together to give the illusion of being featherless. Ruby was more surprised at the hug than the minor discovery, managing to look up at the open slit above her, seeing the lugia's face past it.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked, shifting in her spot.

Again, Buck wanted to try and find an answer, but the thoughts in his head were conflicting, closing his eyes as he tried to calm himself down. Even feeling her rubbing his belly did little to help, soon letting out a sigh as he looked down to her sadly. The fingers on his wing-hand curled up around her, grabbing hold of Ruby as she jolted, looking up at him.

“Um…what are you doing?” she questioned, the lugia able to sense her nervousness as he let out another sigh.

“Ruby, forgive me…” he replied in a saddened, his jaws parting as he opened his maw, Ruby's eyes widening in shock as he moved her towards it. It didn't take her long to snap out of her shock, starting to squirm in the lugia's grip, trying to free herself.

“What are you doing, Buck?!” she cried out, shuddering when she felt the muscle that was the tongue press against her, one of the fingers that held her having let go to place a good portion of her upper body inside of the maw.

He couldn't answer due to his mouth being occupied, but found that she had a rather succulent taste, one that he found odd yet appealing to his new senses. Despite such though, he refrained from trying to lick and savor her taste, rather moving the squirming human towards his throat, soon having to swallow when she reached it.

“Buck, stop this!” he heard her cry out, though greatly muffled due to her current spot.

“Ruby, I–” Buck started to 'say', only to realize that he wasn't speaking vocally, rather via the form of communication commonly used by psychics, a part of him wondering how he was even able to do such without trying. He felt the movement inside his throat lock up, most likely having shocked Ruby due to such.

“Wh-who…?”

Without wasting a moment after another swallow, feeling her slip in further, Buck was able to reply to her again. “Ruby, it's me.” he stated to her “I…I'm sorry that I'm doing this…”

“But…why…?” she asked, feeling betrayed due to the current situation.

“I was…I was so hungry, Ruby…I know that trying to head back would be a bad move, but I didn't want to find food myself, much as I wanted to…”

“But why eat me?! I could have gone to get you something to eat instead of this!” he heard her yell out, wincing slightly at such due to the angered tone as he frowned a bit, doing another swallow but tried to slow it down.

“Because part of me didn't want to wait! It wanted to eat something, anything, at that moment! It didn't care on what or who, it wanted to eat to sate my hunger!” another swallow took place, easily pulling the human in quite a bit, the lugia jolting as he grabbed hold of whatever was left inside of his mouth to prevent Ruby from slipping in fully. “Look…I…I promise you that no matter what, you'll be safe inside of me. Hell, I swear on my life that no harm will come to you, Ruby.”

There was no response from within his neck, resisting the urge to swallow as he tried to pull Ruby back up. Before he could make any progress though, he felt something pressing up against the inside of his throat, almost like as though Ruby was actually rubbing the walls of his throat. The action felt blissful for him, slowly reaching his other wing-hand up to the lump at the top of his neck, lightly rubbing it in return.

“Buck…you truly mean it?” she asked, the tone of anger gone now.

“Yes, I do.” a small nod came from Buck, trying to keep her from slipping in any further if she wanted out, and to his relief without having him choke. He ended up swallowing again, but managed to keep his grip on Ruby and didn't feel her slide in further, feeling her shudder slightly when the ripple went by her.

“I'll admit that that feels rather weird.” she stated, the lugia feeling her rubbing the walls of his throat again. “And…you can let go of me now. I think I trust you enough.”

A smile came to his face when he heard her say such, tilting his head up and let go, swallowing happily as he also rubbed the thick bulge that started its descent down his neck. Much to his pleasure, he felt Ruby continuing to rub the walls of his throat, as well as feeling her squirming about, figuring it was to please him even further. A blissful coo came out from him, a bit surprising to him but only chuckled after, soon able to gaze down at Ruby's squirming form when she was down far enough. He watched with interest, occasionally rubbing the bulge as well, soon seeing it starting to vanish into the bulk of his body. Shortly after he felt her sliding into his stomach, sighing out of content as he pat his belly, hearing her giggle within as the action was most likely shaking the inside up a bit.

“I guess you're full now?” he heard her ask, letting out another coo when he felt her rubbing the walls of his stomach.

“Yeah, definitely.” he responded, vocally this time and was glad he could still speak.

“A little cramped in here, but definitely comfy, and hearing the sound of your heart beating…” Ruby stated, a small blush coming to her and the lugia's face, the latter a bit more so.

“It sounds soothing?” Buck finished for her, hearing a 'yes' in return, smiling at the answer.

“Well…I suppose if you don't mind, I could sleep in here for the night.” Ruby said, shifting in her spot.

“You…you really want to…?” Buck asked in a surprised tone, starting to stand up in his spot.

“Yeah. Besides, I feel that it'd be better than sleeping at the hotel.”

When the lugia fully stood, he tried to think of somewhere that he himself could sleep, glad to hear that Ruby would sleep within the belly of the beast, chuckling to himself at the metaphor-turned-literal. He didn't want to try and sleep while in the water due to him just becoming a lugia, meaning he had a lot to learn of its…his…kind. He also didn't want to try and fly off the island as well, one of the main reasons due to his and Ruby's pokemon still in the center, though obviously he wouldn't be the one claiming them. That, and he'd most likely end up falling flat onto his face should he try to fly.

The only other option was to try and find a nice and quiet spot to sleep for the night, starting to walk into the woods surrounding the plaza he was in. Inside, Ruby felt the movements that was going on around her, figuring that her host was starting to roam about, smiling as she occasionally rubbed the walls that hugged her body. Each time she did such, she either heard a coo showing that he was enjoying it or felt the walls press in lightly, showing that he was hugging his belly in return. It didn't take Buck all that long, able to find a spot he felt that was isolated enough, carefully laying down on his front. Due to the blubber he had, it didn't result in the stomach being pressed in onto Ruby, meaning that he and her could be able to sleep with ease, smiling as he rubbed at the side of his belly.

“Well…good night then, Ruby.” he calmly said.

“Good night to you as well Lu–…Buck.” she replied, catching herself at the last word before correcting herself, hearing him chuckle in response.

They both shared a hearty laugh before both human and lugia started to drift to sleep. Ruby got a good place to sleep, while both were brought closer than their travels had before, figuratively and literally.

-0-0-0-0-

My part of a trade with  RubyGirl14, featuring her characters Buck and Ruby.

This would have been done much earlier had my writing urge not decided to be a little wobbly at the time. Not only that, but a good chunk of this was written largely past midnight, so apologies if the writing quality is severely lacking, 'specially around the transformation segment. .3.

Still, I hope you guys liked this, seeing that this is the first time in quite a while that I've done a trade.

Buck and Ruby ©  RubyGirl14