🌷 🌲
🌷 — taking care of living things
That is, without a doubt, one of his greatest qualities. As a child, what interested him the most alongside history and mythology was the function of all kind of Pokémon and plants, finding it fascinating, so he knows very well how most of them live and what they need to be healthy, safe and happy. Even if he’s, of course, an expert when it comes to dragons, he can easily take care of any type of Pokémon (and he would only need advice on artificial Pokémon or machine-like steel-types, about which he doesn’t know that much). Of course, a volcano isn’t a place for all of them to live, but if he needs, he would move temporarily to Viridian’s deep parts to take care of grass-types, or to the Seafoam Islands for ice-types (though those are under Lorelei’s care so it’s not necessary). And he can easily provide plants of any kind anything they need to grow healthy. He still keeps some old books and notes he took from Blackthorn hidden so he can still revise now and then.
Human babies, though, that would be more difficult. He would need to research far more and lots of advices. And has no interest on doing so as an Elite, of course. But as an adult, with someone he loves? He would be the greatest father.
🌲 — surviving in the wilderness
THIS is his shit. As a child he spent more time in Viridian Forest than City, and Blackthorn is surrounded by pure wild nature. He hasn’t lived in a house since he was 13; he then lived 7 years in a volcano, then moved to the Whirl Islands for around a year (travelling through Johto first without bringing more than his ocarina, items for his Pokémon and some berries), and then stayed in the Eterna Forest without barely moving for another year, and from then on, travelled around the regions always coming back to Eterna in the end, until finally HGSS events happened. As a Champion? He lives wherever he feels better. Cerise is still a home for him, just like Viridian and Eterna forests. Until he’s 28 or 30, he hasn’t yet slept under a roof. Even if he was to spend a night in the Indigo Plateau, he’d just lay down on the grass or in the Vicory Road if it was cold, and sleep there. More than twenty years and counting in wilderness. He doesn’t plan on stopping.
He can get food easily, usually fruit and berries from the trees. His Pokémon hunt weaker Pokémon as it’s their nature, but the only times Wataru has given in and eaten Pokémon meat has been when the Pokémon had been killed by natural causes and he really needed it because he was really weak or ill. Regarding other food, like rice or bread, Agatha and Lorelei are usually the ones who buy it, because Lance is no good in cities, and Bruno would buy 300 cookies instead. When alone in the forest, he sometimes bought food in small stores in Eterna with money from battling young trainers with his new Pokémon (Gabite, Charmeleon and Pupitar), and as a Champion as well, he still does it, though now he can, more or less, handling more than 3 seconds in a city.
About water, he knows many natural springs in mountains of all regions from which he can get drinkable water, so he often travels there with his Pokémon and fill dozens of barrels to have water for days.
Cold hasn’t been a problem during his Elite days, as he only needed to get close to the crater to feel like it was an endless July or August. However, in Eterna, the weather was far colder, and even as an Elite, he spent many nights in Viridian. He has some capes which are thicker and can protect him from the cold like a blanket, while his Pokémon have no problem with it, as they have inner fire able to keep them cold, or they are rocks, or live in the sea. However, winters in Sinnoh was really difficult for him, and he ended up having to retreat to the Old Chateau most of nights during January and February because he just couldn’t handle it, firstly because he only had one cape (the rest were burned or torn), and secondly because, well, he’s no good at all at handling the smallest bit of cold. Of course, an abandoned mansion wasn’t the best place to get warmer, but at least he could find protection from cold wind, rain and snow, and Charizard’s flame and heat could do the rest. Ghosts were no problem. He lived with Agatha for seven years. He’s really over it.
But in general, he really feels far more at ease in natural, wild environments than human ones. Human ones feel fake and suffocating, and give him a kind of claustrophobic feeling. He slowly gets used to them, of course, but he will always prefer sleeping under (or on) a tree, or in the caves of an active volcano.
