EVERYONE: - Ongoing The Social Insect Project (The Bugsy Pairing Challenge)

[RichestAirPirate]

Good morning/afternoon/evening/day, Bulbagarden! So, Azalea Town Gym Leader Bugsy is my personal favorite Pokémon character and one of my favorite characters period. One of the reasons I love him so much is because I find him rather simple and charming to write! That definitely helped me write so much about AdvantageShipping lol.

I wouldn't call myself a Bugsy multishipper but I believe that you can pair him with almost any character and make it work at least decently. So I decided to challenge myself in a way. I will try to write a series of fic that pair Bugsy with one female from every single main series region. I may even include any bonus regions or places depending on how I feel about it! I'll try to keep this updated, but I can only do so much, y'know.

Fics posted in this thread will be tagged and warned individually. The general tone for this series will be fluff, slice of life, and generally lighthearted stuff. It might have some romantic/shipping tones here and there but yeah. I just wanted to make a series to kinda test myself and entertain y'all.

So, sit back, relax, chill by your fireplace or heater or whatever with your breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack, and enjoy the tales of everyone's favorite bug catching dork.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

I would usually start with Kanto and Johto, but I frankly have already written about AdvantageShipping (see the majority of my work) and PlainHiveShipping (The other best Bugsy ship, in my humble opinion). So, we'll be getting to Kanto and Johto later.

So we skip right to Hoenn and pair Bugsy with Roxanne! This ship is apparently known as BugsRockShipping and I really like the sound of it. Both Bugsy and Roxanne are rather nerdy folks. Bugsy's an entomologist and Roxanne's an honors student/teacher that studies rocks. Plus, Roxanne's Japanese name, Tsutsuji, sounds a little similar to Bugsy's Japanese name, Tsukushi. Hey, and wouldn't ya know it, Tsutsuji is the name for Azalea flowers. So how about that?

Anyway, this entry is technically a repost of a fic I made a month ago in my main fanfic thread. So basically, I deleted the post that contained this fic and moved it here. Don't worry. I'll make an actually new fic in this series soon enough.

So anyway, let's get this series a rollin', shall we?

Rating: E for Everyone

​

Spoiler: CW: None

My Fellow Scholar​

Slateport City, Hoenn Region, 10:47am​

---

The morning shined brightly on the bustling port city that Roxanne roamed. The long road of academic and scholarly matters is winding, rough, and not for the faint hearted. However, she’s been walking it for a long time. Even after becoming a trusted tutor at the trainer school due to her graduating with honors, this young lady’s still hard at work for her degree.

The rock expert waited at a table, staring out at the glimmering blue sea. She killed some time at the Battle Tent earlier that day and figured that some rest was much needed. Although, her mind wandered to her most recently completed assignment. A collaboration project with a fellow person of letters. Now that the assignment was turned in and completed, she had arranged to meet this person in Slateport City.

Her PokéNav Plus began to buzz. A quick check of it revealed a text was sent from her partner. “Almost to Slateport!” the text said. Roxanne quickly tapped the buttons to forge a reply back. “Good. I’ll be waiting for you.” She quickly sent her reply before putting the device away again. Back to waiting.

It wasn’t that long till her partner arrived. “Hey! Roxanne!” The young man’s voice was youthful but still had a bit of maturity in it. However, a peculiar amount of nerdiness was in his tone too. Roxanne could recognize it.

“Hello Bugsy. Pleasure to meet you in person.” Roxanne said. Despite only knowing him from the PWT and the assignment collaboration, She analyzed him with hands propped on her hips. He was foiling around in tall grass earlier, wasn’t he? “Your knowledge on Bug Pokémon is quite thorough. And you must have a very hands-on approach to your studies.” She said upon completing her analysis of his form.

“Well yeah, as a bug catcher, you gotta get a little dirty. And they don’t call me the Walking Bug Encyclopedia for nothing, you know!” Bugsy explained as smacked his slightly wet knees to clear them from the bits of sand and grass. “But your knowledge on Rock-type Pokémon is amazing! Never seen such commitment!”

Roxanne cracked a smile. “I’m a trusted trainer school tutor for a reason, Bugsy.” She boasted a bit as she adjusted her tie a little.

Bugsy was intrigued. “Really? Well, can you give me a little advice?” He asked as he pulled out a Pokéball and sent out one of his Pokémon, an Armaldo.

“Raaaaarrrh!” Armaldo let out a roar of sorts upon his release.

“An Armaldo?” Roxanne rubbed her chin a bit. “You have good taste in Pokémon. I knew you had another Bug-Rock-type in your possession, based on what you wrote in our project. Shuckle, wasn’t it?” She asked. “I didn’t know you had an Armaldo as well! Would you kindly allow me to examine it?”

Bugsy nodded. “Mhm! Go ahead! Anyone’s welcome to check out my bug Pokémon!”

Roxanne approached Armaldo carefully. She always saw the species more as a rock-type than a bug-type. To see one in the possession of a bug trainer intrigued her a lot. “Hm…” She walked around the prehistoric bug. The amount of grassy bits on his armored skin and razor claws were evidence of how Bugsy raised him. “I see you’ve been raising him well. Very much like a bug-type.” She commented.

“He’s got the sharp claws of a grade-A bug Pokémon!” The bug expert said before lightly knocking on the armor of the fossil Pokémon. “And his body’s tough too. Reminds me of the sturdiness of other bug types!”

The rock scholar inspected closer, noticing signs of previous attacks on Armaldo in the form of scratch marks. “A large amount of battle damage on his armor… You haven’t been making the most of its rock-type qualities.” She summarized. “My Armaldo has its share of permanent scars, but yours has many more.” She added.

Bugsy chuckled nervously. Guess he was caught red handed there. “Yeah. Been making good use of Swords Dance before striking with strong bug-type attacks and I make use of its natural defense when needed.” He confessed.

“And there’s your issue.” Roxanne pointed to Bugsy before reaching for her own Pokéball. She sent out her own Armaldo. A little smaller than Bugsy’s but had notably less scratch marks on her armor. “My Armaldo here has utilized two different strategies. Curse to enhance its defense and Rock Polish to improve its speed.” She explained. “Although it has evolved to live on land, Armaldo is a species that’s much faster in the water.”

“That’s why I use Aqua Jet for quick movements.” Bugsy quickly interjected.

“A fine workaround for the poor agility, but not the only solution.” Roxanne said with a hand propped on her hip and an index finger pointing up. “Rock Polish will smoothen its body to make it more aerodynamic and much faster. Alternatively, if you don’t worry about mobility, Armaldo can use Curse to sacrifice speed in exchange for increased offense and defense.” She knew she sounded like a scholar, and she always felt like her pose helped her appear more serious and firm, if a little nerdy. Not that it helped keep attention on her. She knew some folks tended to stop paying attention to her.

“Whoa! You really know a lot about how to work a Rock-type!” Bugsy commented with a smile.

Wait, he actually listened to that? That’s… surprising. Not a lot of people actually pay attention to Roxanne’s sermons about stones. To have someone outside of her sphere of rock pals made her feel a little touched. “W-well, it’s just the result of all my studying.” The scholar said before recalling her fossil Pokémon.

Bugsy recalled his Armaldo. “Have you ever thought about becoming a professor?” He asked.

“A professor?” Roxanne repeated before shaking her head. “No. Never thought that far ahead. I’m more focused on getting my teaching degree for now.”

“Well, I’ve been going the distance for my professor’s degree! I wanna know more than just bug Pokémon… I wanna know about Pokémon of all kinds!” The bug expert proclaimed. “Been working on it for years! So far, I’ve been rewriting the book on bug-Pokémon! Literally! I wrote a book!”

Roxanne rubbed her chin for a moment. A book… Then her fingers snapped in realization. “You wrote that book?! Getting The Bugs Out?!”

“Mhm! That was all me!” The Johtonian said.

“Wow… How could I not realize it? That book has been in the trainer school’s library for a while now. Teachers have been praising it a fair deal too. To think it came from you! An admirable effort!” Roxanne said. “You could be a tutor yourself!”

“Aw shucks, you’re gonna make me blush!” Bugsy chuckled a little, already blushing. “But um, being a tutor? I haven’t really done that before, except for teaching this one class at Celadon University, but that was just for one day and only because I volunteered for it. I don’t think I could do teaching full time. Not until I become a full professor!”

Roxanne nodded. “I see, I see. You have your commitments, and I have mine.” She could respect Bugsy’s steadfastness in his goals. Bug-types are known for using harden, after all. Their sturdiness could rival Rock or even Steel types by doing so.

“Y’know, maybe you could visit Johto sometime and I’d be able to show you my research in more detail.” Bugsy suggested. “So long as you don’t mind me talking for hours about ‘em.”

Roxanne laughed a bit. “Oh no no no. I wouldn’t mind. I have a similar habit when discussing my own studies.” She said as she twirled a finger around one of her pigtails. “Although, my studies have indicated there once existed a rock-type evolution of-”

“Scyther?” Bugsy interjected. “You mean Kleavor! Yeah! I’ve caught one at the Blueberry Academy in Unova!”

“Blueberry Academy… I’ve never been to that place, but if they managed to preserve the species in some way, I would like to go there and obtain one myself! I just have to! It’s almost like a fossil Pokémon, much like Armaldo!” Roxanne grew a bit eager. That’s what happens when the idea of rock and fossil Pokémon are brought up. “Another place I’ve been wanting to visit is the Galar region. I hear that they’ve somehow found a way to revive enough fossil Pokémon for them to roam the wild like they did years ago!”

“Visiting Galar’s on my list of things to do someday too!” Bugsy said. “I gotta see what bug Pokémon they have there!”

Their conversation lasted for god knows how long. They’ve done a few things together along the way. Visit Mauville City’s shops, hunt for treasure in Shoal Cave, and even study and catch Pokémon in the Safari Zone. Only when Roxanne checked her PokéNav Plus did she realize how much time they’ve burned. “Oh my! It’s late afternoon already! I have to get to Rustboro! I shall excuse myself, Bugsy…” She sent out her Aerodactyl and hopped on its back.

“Wait a sec!” Bugsy quickly spouted before releasing his Yanmega. He jumped on the bug’s back. “Mind if I come along?”

Roxanne tilted her head. “Sorry, but I think you should get going as well. You’ve got your own things to do, surely.”

Bugsy shook his head. “Today’s my day off, Roxanne. If I had things to do, I wouldn’t have spent today with you!” He chuckled. “But I think I’d just work a night shift at my gym even if it wasn’t my day off.”

“Ah. I see. Well then, care to accompany me in my classroom for a special collaboration lesson?” Roxanne suggested.

“Sure! I’d be happy to share the fruits of my labor!” Bugsy smiled.

“In that case, follow me.” Roxanne said before tapping Aerodactyl’s side, signalling it to take to the sky and soar off to Rustboro.

“Right behind ya!” Bugsy pointed at the flying fossil Pokémon, hinting to Yanmega to fly after it. And so, the dragonfly did.

Roxanne wasn’t expecting to find something of an equal in Bugsy. Not that she saw herself as above him, she just didn’t expect a fellow scholar to be so eager and passionate about studying. She wasn’t going to complain however. In fact, she was going to hope that they kept studying and learning more about Pokémon together.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

And now, we're off to the Sinnoh region. Here, I paired Bugsy up with Maylene for ChildrenShipping. Odd ship name imo, but alright.

There's some potential in this pairing if you were to squint hard enough. I've heard this ship be jokingly called PlainHive but Whitney is replaced with an imposter. I just find that funny. Ironically, Maylene shows up in HGSS and participates in the Pokeathlon, just like Whitney, so how about that? However, Maylene is not Whitney. And this ain't about ol' Akane. This is about Sumomo-sama. I have written Maylene before, but it's been a long while since then, and this is probably the most I've written using Maylene.

I had fun with this one. And I'm looking forward to writing Unova too.

Rating: E for Everyone

Spoiler: CW: Gambling Addiction, Maylene's got money problems

Home In on Your Honey​

Route 214, Sinnoh Region, 8:40pm​

---

There’s many things Maylene wasn’t 100% sure about. She wasn’t entirely sure how being a gym leader works, but she felt like she got it down enough to do the job well. She didn’t know much about fashion, but she was more than comfortable in her usual clothing of a purple sleeveless shirt and plain white sweatpants. Her martial arts skill was near unparalleled in the region, although it was a mix of several other styles overall.

If there was one thing Maylene was 100% unsure about though, it was romance. She’d known Bugsy for a while, long enough for Candice to suspect them of being an item. Maylene was a little hesitant to confirm that, because she just found her focus falling apart when around Bugsy. He was always teaching her something new. Whether it be about bugs or nature or fighting strategies, Maylene tried to focus on what he was saying, but said focus always slipped. Sometimes it deteriorated bit by bit, sometimes it shattered in an instant. Things were no different on this special evening, where the Johtonian treated her to a camping trip.

“I always wanted to catch a Heracross of my own.” Maylene said as she snacked on a quesadilla Bugsy made. This was probably her 4th one for the night. Wasn’t her fault that this guy could do some kind of black magic around a fireplace.

Bugsy raised an eyebrow. “You never caught one? Well, lemme show you how we do it back in Johto!” He walked up to a nearby yellow-leaved tree and sent out one of his bug-types, Beedrill. “Beedrill! Headbutt!” He commanded.

Beedrill focused and thrusted himself at the tree’s trunk, slamming it with his head. The impact shook the leaves, but Beedrill scrambled right back to his trainer. “Ack… Ough…” It seemed to be in pain.

“Hm? You okay, Beedrill?” Bugsy asked as he inspected his bee buddy’s noggin carefully.

Maylene was able to explain, luckily. “Oh, we don’t do that here.” She said with her mouth full of food since she was still eating her quesadilla. “The trees are too thick and sturdy for that. We smear honey on them instead.” She said before swallowing. She reached into her bag of items and pulled out a half empty jar of honey. “I um… ate a lot of it before I came here.” She confessed before using a slathering brush to smear the honey on the tree’s trunk.

While he applied an ice pack to Beedrill’s head, Bugsy felt the need to ask a question. “Hey Maylene, you seem to eat a lot. Why is that?” He asked.

Maylene stopped her honey smearing and turned to him. “Um… that is… that’s because I don’t… have a lot of money.” Her face turned sappy as she gave a vulnerable look towards him.

“How come?” The insect head asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

The barefoot fighting genius lightly kicked the ground. “My dad doesn’t make a lot of money consistently because he spends a lot of time at the Game Corner’s casino section. I live on my own and sometimes have to lend him some money. That’s what family’s for, right? But in doing so, I um… I don’t have that much to spend for lunch and stuff.” She sighed.

“Oh. You’re…” Bugsy didn’t expect that to be the reason. “I’m… sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’ve been trying to go on a Medicham’s diet and consume only one meal or snack a day but…” Maylene looked at her stomach and figure. “Sometimes I feel like it’s not good for me. Even Candice is aware of it.” She sighed before sitting down on a log. “Sorry to ruin the mood, Bugsy. Your cooking is really good and filling and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea-”

“Oh no no no! It’s okay! It’s okay!” Bugsy quickly interjected, “I just… I didn’t know you were in that bad of a spot. I wanna help you, if I can. I know Johto’s really far from Sinnoh, but I still wanna try to help you in some way.”

Maylene looked at the bug catcher in confusion. “Like what, are you gonna start transferring money to me? Are Johto’s PCs even that advanced?” She tilted her head.

“I uh… I’ll think of something!” Bugsy said while rubbing the back of his head. He wasn’t the richest trainer in the world, but he still had the heart to try something.

After a bit, Bugsy showed Maylene how to make a s’more. Well, she already had a basic idea of how to do so, but hearing an expert explain it did help. To her surprise, she managed to make a near perfectly roasted marshmallow on her second try! And the taste was ultra satisfying. Next thing the fighting expert knew, she was asking a question of her own. “Hey Bugsy, how come you’re not in the Pokéathlon?”

“I’m not built for it.” Bugsy answered.

Maylene shook her head. He can’t really mean that, right? “Falkner can do it just fine. Jasmine can do it too. Whitney as well. And me too! Why can’t you?”

“I’m not the most athletic fella around, Maylene. There’s no way I could keep up with the others.” The entomologist admitted while twiddling his thumbs. He was always someone to try new things, but he knew he’d be really outclassed in the sports department.

Maylene elbowed him a bit. “Don’t say that! Your bug Pokémon really have potential there. Scyther has great speed, Scizor has great stamina and power, Butterfree and Beedrill have great jumping ability… You guys could do great!”

Bugsy raised an eyebrow. “Um, how do you know tha-” And then he paused upon realizing how stupid that question was gonna sound. The way Maylene looked at him with a face that just said ‘...really?’ only added to that realization. “Y’know, maybe… I could learn something new about bug Pokémon by doing so… but I’m more than comfortable just sitting in the sidelines to cheer my friends on…” His foot began to twitch in thought. “Although…”

The martial artist roasted another marshmallow. Well, not another. She roasted 4 all on a single stick. She prepared the s’mores for herself and the bug catcher. “Just give it some thought, okay?” She asked.

The purple haired young man took a moment but grabbed one of the treats. “I definitely will.” He said before stuffing his face. The smile that followed was wide. “Wow Maylene, you really know how to focus on something! A whole 4 marshmallows at once, all perfectly done!” He added.

The pink haired girl blushed a bit. Her? Focused? Well, she can focus on some things. “I’m just doing my best here! That’s… kind of my motto since I became a gym leader.” She said while tapping her finger tips together. “But I wanted to make those ones right because um… well, we both like s’mores, right?” She couldn’t state the real reason. She couldn’t find the guts yet.

After some more s'mores were eaten and time had passed, Bugsy put out the campfire and led Maylene into the tent, only lit up by a single lantern. Their sleeping bags were relatively close to each other. Neither party minded that too much. The two nestled within the bedrolls. “So, got any plans for tomorrow?” Maylene asked.

Bugsy looked upward. “I kinda don’t have any. Well, we gotta check on the honey tree and then pack up the stuff and go. I might also visit Eterna Forest or Route 229 to check out their bug Pokémon with Aaron…” He began playing with one of his bangs using his right hand, unaware of the fighting specialist awkwardly reaching her arm over his chest to grab his shoulder. When he did notice, he was a little confused. “Um… what are you doing?” He asked.

Maylene’s cheeks went bright red. “I… um…” Her mind then flashed the word focus into her memory. “My dad told me that he managed to not gamble all his winnings away today and wants to celebrate by going out to dinner tomorrow. He’s even letting me invite friends too!” She smiled.

“Really? Well, that’s great! I hope he holds onto it for a while!” Bugsy smiled too.

That charming grin made the Sinnohian girl blush and lose focus. However, she had to snap out of it. She had to push through. “...Wanna go out to dinner with me?” Maylene asked, finally getting some sort of courage in her.

Bugsy laughed a bit. “You said that like it was tough to say!”

Maylene’s blush only grew brighter. “B-Because it was! Y’know you and I have known each other for a while! Even Candice is saying that we’re dating and-” Then she facepalmed, realizing that she’s just saying too much! Now Bugsy’s blushing!

“Well, if I get to spend more time with you Maylene, I’d like to join you for dinner!” Bugsy answered.

Maylene raised her face out of her palm. Did he really just reply to that so naturally? “...Really? Um, thanks! My dad’s a nice person, despite his issues. I’m sure he’ll like you!” She explained.

“Hope he doesn’t mind me talking about bug types.” Bugsy chuckled.

The Veilstonian girl scooted a little closer to the Azalean boy. “Thanks for taking me out tonight, Bugsy. I had fun.” She leaned into him a little before her eyelids began to get heavy. “Goodnight…” She managed to get out during her yawn.

The Johtonian smiled warmly. “Goodnight, Maylene.” He put the lantern out before looking down at her. He didn’t really mind her nuzzling on him. He could get used to it. If it makes her happy, then he’s happy too.