Shiny Reunion

[Gaiash Ketoji]

Well here it is, my first proper fanfic. I'm hoping to improve my writing as I work on this. I also intend to make it to the end.

Chapter One: Seven Years Later

Over seven long years Pallet Town had not changed no new buildings and no changes to the old ones. No, Pallet Town was just as May remembered it when she first came here after her adventure in Hoenn with Ash. May hadn’t seen Ash in years, she saw him a few times after he had finally achieved his goal of becoming a Pokémon Master but after a while Ash seemed to have just stopped travelling.

May found her way around easy enough, even if she had forgotten the way there was no way of missing Professor Oak’s lab. The first person May saw as she entered was a girl she hadn’t met before.

“Hello there.” May started “My name is May.”
“Nice to meet you.” The girl replied “I’m Dora.”
“Do you work here?” May asked.
“Not always.” Dora answered “I’m here helping Professor Oak with his Shiny Pokémon research.”
“What kind of research?” May continued.
“Well I don’t know if you’ve noticed but quite recently there have been more sightings of Shiny Pokémon.” Dora explained “The Professor decided to use this as a chance to learn to origins of what causes Pokémon to sometimes have different colours. Oh and here comes the Professor now.”

Ash’s old rival Gary Oak walked in with a notepad under his arm.
“Dora I’ve told you just call me Gary.” He sighed “Nice to see you again May.”
“Same here.” May smiled “Is Ash around?”
“He should be outside with his Pokémon.” Gary replied “I’d ask Tracey to help you find him but he’s out visiting his fiancé.”
“I didn’t know Tracey was engaged.” May almost gasped.
“It only happened last year.” Gary smiled “Anyway Ash shouldn’t be too hard to find. If you have any trouble I’m sure his Pokémon would be happy to help you find him.”
“Thanks Gary.” May responded.
“No problem.”

“Before you go.” Gary added as May turned around “Is it possible for you could to do me a favour.”
“What kind of favour?” May replied.
“Do you think you could try and get him to travel again?” he asked “It’s just his mother has been worried about him and we’ve all missed Ash getting excited about his adventures with his friends.”
“I’ll do my best.” May smiled “I had something similar in mind anyway.”

On her way to the back door May noticed a selection of paintings of different Pokémon however she decided not to stop and look at each one. Once she stepped out she felt like she had walked into the Safari Zone, there had always been a large amount of Pokémon here but May was amazed at just how many more there were now. She recognised some of the Pokémon that Ash had used when she travelled with him and those used in his Pokémon League battles. Suddenly she spotted him, sitting on a small hill with Pikachu by his side. May almost didn’t recognise him without a hat on.

~*~*~

Ash looked up at the sky, thinking of the day he and Pikachu first saw Ho-oh. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice call out.
“Ash!”
He looked down to see May rushing up toward him. The first thing he noticed was how beautiful she looked, and then he noticed she looked a lot like she did when he first met her which meant she had always been this beautiful. Ash wondered why he never noticed this before, he still had photos of May from when he travelled with him much like all his friends, perhaps it was because when he looked at these photos he saw a girl around the age of ten while he was a teenager.

“M-May.” Ash stuttered as May was suddenly beside him.
“Yep, it’s me.” May replied cheerfully.
“I haven’t seen you in years.” Ash smiled “How’ve you been?”
“Not bad.” May answered as she sat down “How about you?”
“I haven’t really been doing much.” Ash sighed “Mostly I’ve just been helping Tracey take care of the old professor.”
“Can’t say I’ve been out much either.” May laughed.

“I’ve had this interesting idea.” May said enthusiastically.
“What’s that?” Ash asked.
“Well I thought since neither of us have been travelling much lately maybe we could follow each others old goals.”
“What do you mean?” Ash asked uncertain if he had heard her correctly.
“Well you could enter Pokémon contests and I could challenge Gym Leaders and enter the Pokémon League.”

“You want me to travel with you?” Ash asked in shock.
“Of course.” May answered “I considered going alone or maybe joining Max on his own adventure but then I remembered how much fun we had travelling together. Not to mention I’ve really missed you and wanted to see you again.”

Ash thought about everything he had just heard for a moment. He had really missed those old days trying to reach his goal. These days the only times he ever really left Pallet Town was to buy things at Viridian City.

“I haven’t travelled in years.” Ash finally started “I might not be as good a trainer as I was.”
“If that’s the case we’ll just have to improve as we go along.” May smiled.
“It’s worth a try.” Ash shrugged “Plus Gary has been trying to get me to start a new journey of some kind. How about you Pikachu? Up for another adventure?”
Pikachu let out a cheerful “Pika!” and jumped up on Ash’s head.
“Then it’s settled.” Ash said as he looked out at the rest of Pallet Town. It was hard to believe he’d be leaving once again.

~*~*~

Ash spent a while picking out which Pokémon he would bring with him. May was surprised at just how many of the Pokémon were actually Ash’s. The two of them talked about their past adventures, battling Team Rocket and dreaming of reaching their goals. After a while Ash settled on a team of five and the two of them walked back to the lab. Gary and Dora were waiting for them.

“So you’re finally leaving again are you Ash?” Gary smirked
“Yeah.” Ash replied “Are you ok with taking care of the old professor while I’m gone?”
“Don’t worry about gramps.” Gary answered “I can take care of him until Tracey gets back. Which reminds me don’t forget to come back in time for his wedding.”
“Of course.” Ash nodded.

“Here take these with you.” Gary said handing Ash a small book and a Pokéball. “Here’s a copy of my research on shiny Pokémon.” He explained “And the Pokéball contains a Pokémon I caught during my research but I think you should have it Ash.”
“Thanks Gary.” Ash smiled “I’ll be sure to take care of it.”

~*~*~

As Ash and May approached Ash’s house Delia rushed out of the front door with a backpack in one hand and a hat in the other.
“Gary called.” She explained hugging Ash “I quickly packed your things. And when I heard it was your friend May I made sure to include this.”
She opened the front pocket of the bag and took out a very familiar item to Ash and May.

It was Ash’s half of the ribbon the two of them won in the unofficial contest that was held in Terracotta Town way back May’s Combusken evolved into Blaziken.

May reached into her jacket pocket and took out her own half of the ribbon.
“I keep it with me every time I go on a journey to remind me of how much you helped me become a great Co-ordinator.” May explained moving it towards Ash’s half.
Ash didn’t know what to say, he had heard May say something similar years ago but this time he felt different.

Ash decided he’d think about this later. His mother handed him his hat and backpack.
“Thanks mom” Ash smiled “Take care of yourself.”
“You too Ash.” She replied.
May smiled as Ash placed the hat onto his head. He looked like his iconic self once again.

[LuciferIX]

For your first true fic this wasn't all that bad. Having each of them go for the opposite goals would definitly be a tough one for each of them but if they were able to pull it off then there would be no doubt that they would be better trainers in the end. There are also two things on my mind in terms of questions that will be answered. First would be what Pokemon is inside the Pokeball that Gary gave Ash and second would be how the shiny Pokemon will be taking a big role in this fic.

I really didn't see any errors in this chapter, although I have to say that some of the other readers here are better at that than I am. I hope to see your next chapter up soon, keep 'em coming!

[thedarkfiddler]

Good job so far. Can't wait to know what the Pokemon is though. Maybe it's the ever recurring in fandom Gallade?
But wait, can I take a guess at ages here?
May must be somewhere between 17 and 19. And Ash has to be between 20 and 22.
Am I right?

[JbstormburstADV]

Well, the paragraph spacing could be a bit better, since it's really a whole bunch

of paragraphs collasped on each other. Do something like what I'm doing here

with any new paragraphs, and you should be good.

[Gaiash Ketoji]

Jul 12, 2008 10:25:42 GMT 12 JbstormburstADV said:

Well, the paragraph spacing could be a bit better, since it's really a whole bunch

of paragraphs collasped on each other. Do something like what I'm doing here

with any new paragraphs, and you should be good.

True. Hopefully the next chapter should be easier for me to split up paragraphs. I also intend to make it longer.

Jul 12, 2008 10:24:08 GMT 12 @thedarkfiddler said:

But wait, can I take a guess at ages here?
May must be somewhere between 17 and 19. And Ash has to be between 20 and 22.
Am I right?

Actually they are both 17. It was stated in the interview on Pokebeach that Ash won't age which means hes still 10 in the anime. This means Ash and May are both the same age. But either way I don't intend to have characters bring up their age.

[thedarkfiddler]

If the movies and episodes are conon, Ash has to be AT LEAST eleven now, because they celebrated the aniversary of his meeting Pikachu (Tenth Birthday). But, that's for a different thread, and you are the writer, so I'll just go with them both being 17.
To tell the truth, this is what made me put Ash at 20:
he saw a girl around the age of ten while he was a teenager
But then I realized you might mean that he looked at them as a teenager, when they were taken at age 10.

[XAOTL]

Well a nicely done first chapter. With the unexpected twist of them aiming for each others goals. Why, I don't really know. Altough there must be something big for Ash to not go out for his dreams, then May shows up and he changes his attitude in a second.

That and it's probably Misty who's engaged. But I'm just guessing here.

Oh, and to add onto the Ash age convo going on here.

twelve years minimum. Veridian to Veridian took 1 year.

[Gaiash Ketoji]

As promised this chapter is longer. I know the name is cheesy but I couldn't resist.

Chapter Two: The advance ship sets sail

Ash decided now seemed like the best time to start thinking about these recent feelings he’d been having. Once they had arrived in Viridian City May decided she’d go to the local Pokémart and see which regions have contests being held at the moment. Ash decided to sit outside to take one last look at the only other town he’d been to these past few years.

So the first thing to wonder was what these feelings are. Ash knew of various emotions he had not yet experienced, it could be any one of those. Out of all emotions the ones that Ash knew the least about were lust and love. Either way this meant he must be attracted to May in some way.

Ash decided to think about other possibilities. He didn’t want to think about the idea of seeing such a close friend in such a way. But nothing else came to his head.

Ash started to worry, had he developed feelings for one of his closest friends? If he had he defiantly preferred the idea of it being love to lust. He remembered how the first thing he thought was how beautiful she was. Not only that but she managed to convince him to travel again rather quickly.

Before Ash could think about this any more May walked out of the store. He knew better than to talk to her about this, maybe he’d talk with Pikachu about it later.

“It looks like our options are Fiore, Almia, Orre, Sinnoh and Johto.” May explained showing him leaflet “I’m not to keen on going to Orre mind you, it’s almost all desert and we wouldn’t be able to go from town to town on foot.”
“Don’t forget they don’t have Gyms there.” Ash reminded her “You’re challenging the Gyms remember. That means our only options are Johto and Sinnoh.”
“Oh yeah.” She said hitting her forehead “I guess I’m so used to my goal being contests I completely forgot. Funny since it was my idea in the first place. Anyway which would you prefer?”
“Well I do recall enjoying those super contests in Sinnoh. I even entered a few of them.”
“Sinnoh it is then. In fact I think my brother is travelling there too.”
“It would be cool to see Max again. It’s a shame Hoenn isn’t an option.”
“That’s true” She replied looking at the leaflet again “It looks like the best way to get to Sinnoh is by ferry from Vermilion City.”
May started to worry now, Vermilion City was defiantly not a day away and by the time they’d get there the best place to catch the ferry might change.

Ash looked up into the air, the sky seemed rather clear, the clouds that were visible didn’t look like they’d be causing rain any time soon. Ash reached for his belt and picked out one of his Pokéballs.

“It’s a good thing I brought you with me buddy.” Ash said to the Pokéball.
“What are you talking about Ash?” May responded.
“I can see you seem troubled. I guess you don’t want us to waste time walking to Vermilion City in case they change the schedule changes. Am I right?”
“Yes, but what can we do?” May asked shocked that Ash had said exactly what she was thinking.
Ash tossed the Pokéball into the air, sending out Charizard.
“We’re going to fly there.” Ash explained “Many Pokémon are able to carry their trainers from city to city. I’m certain Charizard could get us to Vermilion City today.”
May was shocked that Ash had prepared for a possibility like this.

“Are you sure Charizard will mind carrying both of us?” May asked.
“If it did I’d be on fire right now.” Ash laughed
“I guess that’s true. But either way that really was smart of you to think about this.”
“Well I’m not as dumb as I used to be May” Ash explained “I’m a teenager now.”
“You were never dumb Ash, if you were why would I have looked up to you?”
Ash felt that unknown emotional feeling yet again, at least now he knew it couldn’t be lust.

Ash helped May to get onto Charizard’s back. Pikachu held onto the back of the fire Pokémon’s neck. They were ready to go. Charizard spread its wings and began to move upwards.

May watched as Viridian City grew smaller and smaller. She held onto Ash tightly. This caused Ash to blush, something May might have noticed if she wasn’t behind him. Soon Charizard stopped moving upwards and started moving in the direction of Vermilion City.

A flock of Taillow flew past then, seeing these Pokémon in Kanto was a rare sight.
“They must have flown here from Hoenn.” May spoke quite loudly over the sound of Charizard’s wings flapping.
“Pretty cool huh?” Ash replied in an equally loud voice.
“Pikachu Pika!” Pikachu added.

~*~*~

Charizard landed right next to the harbour. Ash helped May get down and shortly afterwards Pikachu jumped from Charizard’s head to Ash’s.
“Thanks Charizard, now have a good long rest.” Ash said recalling it to the Pokéball. Suddenly he found himself getting hugged.
“That was amazing!” My exclaimed squeezing him tightly “See Ash, you still have that adventure spirit in you.”
“May.”
“Yes Ash.”
“I can’t breathe.”

They were in luck. It looked like they were just in time to catch the next ferry to Sinnoh. The two of them were thinking about the hug. May was embarrassed that she had squeezed him so hard while Ash couldn’t stop thinking about the fact he was just hugged by the girl he may or may not be in love with. Pikachu however was thinking about relaxing during the upcoming trip.

After paying for their tickets Ash and May rushed towards the front of the ship excited to begin their new journey. Ash remembered he wanted to talk to Pikachu about his emotional confusion.

“May are you ok if Pikachu and I set things up in our room.” Ash asked hoping she wouldn’t offer to help “The ship doesn’t set sail for about half an hour.”
“Good idea.” May replied misunderstanding his reasons “That way we’ll be able to eat sooner.”
“My thinking exactly.” He lied, though he did think it was a good idea.
“Just be sure to get back in time to get one last look at Kanto.”
“We won’t take long.”

~*~*~

Their room wasn’t particularly special. Ash quickly set up his stuff in the room before turning towards Pikachu who was happily eating an apple.
“Pikachu is it ok if I talk to you about something?” Ash started
“Chu.” Pikachu nodded.
“It’s about May.” He nervously said.
“Pichuka?” Pikachu asked with a look of confusion.
“Well it’s just ever since she arrived in Pallet Town earlier I started noticing something, well different.”
Pikachu had a good idea where this was going.
“I have a theory about what this might be, and that’s…”
“Pika...” The small Pokémon encouraged.
“Well I think I might well… like her.” He finally managed.
Pikachu had no eyebrows but its expression resembled that of a human raising their eyebrow in a way of saying ‘Well duh.’
“Am I really that obvious?” He asked looking really embarrassed.
Pikachu just nodded.
“I really hope May doesn’t find out.”
This puzzled Pikachu.
“Well I do but I’d rather tell her myself. To be honest I don’t think I could though. I’m still uncertain about what these feelings are. What if I tell her and then realise it’s something completely different? Or worse, what if I am in love and when I tell her it ruins our friendship?” Ash was really quite nervous at this point.
“Pikapi.” Pikachu sighed.

May wondered what was taking Ash so long. She wanted him to be by the side as the ship set sail.
“Maybe I should just head to our room.” She said to herself “I don’t mind where we are on the ship when it starts, I just-“
She stopped herself realizing how it might sound if someone walked past. But she had clearly finished the sentence in her head. She just wanted to be with Ash. That was the whole reason she was one this journey in the first place.

“I think I understand but still I should probably wait a while before telling her.” Ash decided.
“Pika.” Pikachu agreed.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Ash went to answer it.
“Ash!” May exclaimed “Come on, the ship is about to start moving.”
Ash looked at the clock in the room.
“Is that the time?!” Ash jolted back “Sorry May, I guess Pikachu and I got caught up in our conversation.”

The two of them rushed to the back of the boat arriving in time to see Vermilion City move out into the distance.
“So what were you and Pikachu talking about?” May asked curiously.
“Oh. Well I was just telling Pikachu about how much help you’ve been since you came back to Pallet Town.” He explained, this was the truth but with significant details left out “I didn’t want to embarrass you by talking about it in front of you.”
“Awww that’s so sweet of you Ash.” She responded “Not how about we go get something to eat?”
“Now you’re speaking my language.” And within a second the two of them were racing to the restaurant at the bottom of the boat.

[thedarkfiddler]

Ha, pretty good... Ash kinda makes me think of this one scene from Futurama...:
Zoidburg: :Is it love when you want to be with a woman for purposes other than mating?"
Fry: "NAh, must be some strange alien emotion."
Well, at least towards the beggining he make me think of that.

[LuciferIX]

So the infamous question arises of if an uncertain emotion might change the friendship that took so long to build. That is one of the two questions that are the absolute plague that keeps people from outright saying how they feel. It will undoubtedly strike all of us at some point in time, and its already one of the top things on Ash's mind. Although since we are only really looking into Ash's head there are only assumptions on the other side, even if they are pretty good assumptions.

You're still doing well with this and I'm still looking forward to see how they fare doing the other's specialty. But then again Ash has a few contests under his belt and contest battling isn't all that different from gym battling, so they at least have a good start. Hope to see the next chapter up soon, keep the updates coming!

[Gaiash Ketoji]

Well the 3rd chapter is finished. Something important happens here that will come up again later in the story.

Chapter Three: Feelings confirmed

Ash and May had managed to find a table near the windows. While they ate their food they looked out at all the water Pokémon swimming past.

May looked around at all the other people in the restaurant. Quite a lot of them were couples, and likewise many of these couples seemed interested in spotting something through the window.

“I wonder what they’re looking for.” May asked turning to Ash who was busy stuffing his face with noodles. He looked at out the window to see if he might be able to see it himself.
“I don’t see anything.” He said turning back to May “Maybe there’s a rare Pokémon that could be seen around here. Like Kyogre.”
“It could be, but it only seems to be couples that are looking.” She explained.
Ash looked out again but all he saw was a school of Luvdisc swimming pretty close to their window.
“Whatever it is I can’t see it.” Ash said getting back to his meal.

“Say Ash, do you want to practice for your new life as a Co-ordinator?” May asked “It says here that there’s a room that would be perfect for contest training.”
“Sounds great.” Ash responded “This is defiantly going to be the most fun I’ve had on the way to another region.”

~*~*~

The room May was talking about was defiantly built for unofficial Pokémon contests. It had everything from a scoreboard to a panel for the judges. May went over to the judge’s panel.

“Ok Ash lets see how you are at the appeal round. Pikachu and I will act as the judges.” She explained “Remember for bonus points try combining moves.”
“Hopefully I’ll remember how to do this.” Ash said to himself looking at a Pokéball in his had, the last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself in front of May.

“Butterfree I choose you!” Ash called out tossing the Pokéball into the air. Butterfree flew across the stage happily. “Ok Butterfree, make me proud. Use Silver Wind and follow it up with Whirlwind.”
It nodded and launched the first attack. Once it started using Whirlwind the Silver Wind got caught inside. The result was a silver swirl spinning in the centre of the stage.

“Now finish it off with Shadow Ball!” Ash commanded.
Butterfree launched the attack at the silver whirlwind causing the silver colouring to float down gently.

“Impressive.” May remarked thinking of the appeals her Beautifly has done before.
“Ka Pikachu Pi.” Pikachu added mimicking the contest judge Sukizo.

~*~*~

As the day drew to a close Ash and May found themselves alone with only Pikachu for company. May looked out at the sunset admiring the beautiful sight.

“You know” She started “It’s surprising all those couples we saw at lunch didn’t stay to watch the sunset.”
“I never understood the big deal about sunsets anyway.” Ash responded stroking Pikachu.
“I guess you still know nothing about romance.” May laughed “You’re exactly like I remember you.”
“I don’t know nothing.” Ash defended “Over the years I travelled my mother collected various romantic movies, I watched a few of them hoping to understand the idea of romance better.”
“So what do you know now then?” May asked.
“Mostly I can notice it more than I used to.” He responded rather embarrassed “For example looking back I would have noticed when my Grovyle fell for that Meganium.”
“I was amused that Max realised that while you didn’t.” May chuckled.
“And I would have noticed when your Bulbasaur had a crush on my first Bulbasaur.”
“I thought I was the only one who noticed that.” May said in shock.
“You were.” Ash reminded her “I only just realised now when thinking back.”
“So” May curiously began “Your first Bulbasaur?”
“Well I’ve caught more than one of the same Pokémon before” Ash replied “But more importantly there’s this little guy.”

Ash tossed his Pokéball up into the air sending out a shiny Bulbasaur.
“Is that the Pokémon Gary gave you?” May asked aware that it obviously was.
“Yeah, I knew it had to be either Bulbasaur or Cranidos and out of the two Bulbasaur seemed the most likely of the two he’d give me.”
“Why’s that?” May asked looking confused.
“It’s the first Pokémon we both had.” Ash reminded her “Remember?”
“Of course” she chuckled “I just didn’t think Gary would have that as his reason.”
“Well it was just a theory anyway.” Ash joined her while petting his new Bulbasaur.
“So back to our first topic” May continued “What is it that you don’t get about sunsets with romance?”
“I’m not sure really.” He admitted scratching his head “I guess its just that I never saw a connection between the day ending and being in love.”
“Well in reality it is just something nice to look at with someone you care about it.” She explained “There’s nothing more to it that that.”
“Thanks for clearing that up May.”
“Any time. Anything else about romance you need explaining, I’d be glad to help. I consider myself something of an expert.”

Ash stopped to think for a moment. Maybe she could confirm exactly what his feelings were. If it wasn’t love perhaps she would be willing to help him figure out what he was really feeling.

“Well.” He slowly started “There is one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“How do you know when you love someone?”
This took May by surprise. Ash couldn’t have never fell in love before, he knew little to nothing about romance sure but this was different. Still how else would he not know?

“Well that’s a tricky one.” She finally answered “It’s hard to describe but I’ll try my best. You feel like this person is the most important part of your life, when something is said that makes you feel important to this person you notice your heartbeat and your blood feels all tingly. You think about them almost every moment of every day. And when you sleep you dream about being with this person. Does that help?”
“Yeah.” Ash responded as he heard his heard his heart beating rather loudly. “If I ever want to know anything else I’ll be sure to turn to you.”
“Of course.” She smiled “I’ll be your teacher in Pokémon contests and romance.”
“Well we’d better get some sleep.” Ash yawned as he recalled Bulbasaur to it’s Pokéball. “I don’t want to be tired when we arrive in Sinnoh tomorrow. I want to start training for contest battles as soon as possible.”
May nodded. Ash and Pikachu raced to their room on the other side of the ship.

“Looks like you still have trouble noticing love don’t you?” May said looking at her half of the ribbon. “Otherwise you’d have realised…”
“Hey May!” Ash called out “Are you coming?”
She rushed up to him.
“Shhh.” She whispered “You’ll wake everyone up.”
The two of them quietly chuckled as they rushed back to their room.

[thedarkfiddler]

Yay 4 Luvdiscs!

Good chapter.

[XAOTL]

well a bit with the Luvdisc, could that be foreshadowing. Maybe not. BUt Ash seems to be realising his feelings more. Can't really imagine him watching romantic films.

But May is doing quite a good job at hiding her feelings. She hasn't really acted like shes fallen for Ash, so I don't know what could have been going on beetween chapters,

But Ash has a Shiny Bulbasaur, and a Butterfree. But seeing as he's doing Contests now, he has to concentrate a bit more on appearence rather than pure power.

[zeaeevee]

this is too CUTE!!!
IM LOVING IT SO FAR!!
UPDATE SOON!!

[Gaiash Ketoji]

Sorry this took so long. However this is my longest chapter yet due to being a whole day.

Chapter Four: Second Day

The first thing Ash saw as he woke up was his two closest friends looking down at him.
“It’s about time you got up.” May said handing him his hat “We’ll be approaching Sinnoh soon.”
“Yikes!” Ash jolted out of bed “I’m really sorry May. I’ve slept in quite a lot recently. I’m still not used to travelling again.”
“Well this is only the second day.” May reminded him “Though it was quite a big day for us don’t you agree?”
“Yeah.” Ash replied thinking about just how much that day changed his life.
“Anyway I’ve repacked your bag for you. I guess we’re lucky you decided to sleep in your clothes since I don’t think you’d have time to get dressed.”

As the ship arrived in Sinnoh Ash felt so amazed to be out of Kanto again. It all felt brand new again.
“I know I’ve already said this but I am so glad you convinced me to travel again.” Ash said looking happily as May.
“And I’m glad to have you travelling with me.” She replied chuckling “This wouldn’t be nearly as exciting on my own.”

The city was crowded. It seemed various trainers had come from all over Sinnoh for something. Ash and May were too busy finding a place to train to notice. They quickly found a large field filled with trainers each training two particular Pokémon.

“May, is it just me or are they all just training Volbeat and Illumise?” Ash asked fearing his eyes were playing tricks on him.
“It certainly looks like it.” May responded “There must be something happening, I wonder what it is.”

“You mean you don’t know?” a voice from behind them interrupted. The two of them turned around to see a man about Brock’s age with dark red hair, he had a cold expression and his relaxed stance reminded May of her old rival Drew.
“Know what?” Ash asked with a clueless look on his face.
“Come on kid people from all over Sinnoh have been talking about this event all year.” He responded shocked “Where have you been?”
“Pallet Town.” Ash replied “I only just arrived in Sinnoh today.”
“Come on Ash we’d better start training for your first Contest.” May declared trying to prevent an argument.
“Contest training you say?” The man seemed interested “I happen to be preparing for my next Contest myself. It would make sense to prepare against a random Pokémon than my own.”
“I accept your challenge!” Ash declared.

The man sent out his Pokémon first. It was a shiny Medicham.
“I see what Gary meant about there being more trainers with shiny Pokémon these days. Ok Lucario lets give this our best shot.” Ash said sending out the canine Pokémon.

Throughout the battle Ash commanded one attack after another, however his opponent’s Medicham kept its attacks to a minimum but made sure each one made contact and looked stunning.
“Lucario use Aura Sphere!” Ash called out but suddenly the man recalled his Medicham.

“This match is over.” He explained looking at Ash with disgust “Your attacks were too focused on defeating me and you paid no attention to how they looked. You battle like a regular Pokémon trainer, you’d have lost all your points by now. You’re not suited for Pokémon contests and no amount of training will change that.”
May was furious. She grabbed one of her own Pokéballs and threw it in the air sending out a Milotic.
“You don’t know anything about Ash!” she shouted “He helped me become a great co-ordinator and I’m going to do the same for him, he was the one that inspired me the most when I first started Pokémon contests. Battle me and you’ll see how great a co-ordinator he has the potential to be.”
“Forget it.” He calmly replied walking away “If your main inspiration for contests was someone like him you wouldn’t be a challenge for me either. I have no interest in facing posers like you two.” And before Ash or May could say another word he had already gotten too far to hear them.

“Thanks for sticking up for me May.” Ash said “And thanks for saying that I inspired you, it really means a lot to me.”
“That’s ok.” May replied making sure she didn’t blush “And don’t worry about the things that guy said. I had to put up with Drew and Harley saying similar things when I first started too, particularly Harley.”
“Thanks again May.” Ash smiled “So how about we find out what this Volbeat and Illumise thing is all about?”
“Good idea.”

~*~*~

It seemed that there was going to be a big show that evening where trainers would send out their own Volbeat and Illumise to perform. I was an annual event that seemed very familiar to May.

“Shame I didn’t bring my Volbeat with me.” Ash chuckled “Then again he isn’t the best performer.”
“Say Ash. Know what this reminds me of?” May asked.
“I’m unsure.” Ash scratched the back of his head, an old habit he never got over.
“When we first travelled together there was that couple with their own Volbeat and Illumise.”
“Oh yeah.” Ash suddenly remembered “I remember now. You made me dress up like a girl didn’t you?”
“So I did. Sorry about that.”
“I think you’d have looked prettier.”

May found it even harder to avoid blushing.
“Come on now Ash.” She chuckled deciding to avoid bringing up the supposedly unlikely idea that Ash considered her attractive “I think you made a rather pretty girl.”
“You didn’t see the outfit I wore to get into the Celadon Gym.” Ash laughed.
“You never told me about that.” May smirked amused that it wasn’t the first time Ash had dressed like a woman.
“It’s a long story.” Ash sighed
“You can tell me about it later then.”

May kept thinking about how Ash had in a way called her pretty. She’d been complimented on her appearance many times but usually but guys who were only interested in her looks, and it hearing it from other girls didn’t really mean as much. This time was different however.

May knew it wasn’t because she liked Ash that she was thinking about this. It was the way he said it, it sounded caring but at the same time casual. She decided that she was thinking about it too much, Ash was just being sweet.

“May.” Ash turned to her “Are you ok?”
May realised Ash was still sitting there while she was thinking about all this.
“Yeah I’m fine.” She replied.
“That’s a relief.” Ash sighed “I was worried I said something wrong.”
“What do you mean?” May asked confused.
“As soon as I said you’d look prettier than me you seemed to be thinking about something.”
“I’m just not used to being called pretty.” She lied “That’s all. I know you were just being nice.”
“Well believe me May you look great the way you are.” Ash smiled “If other people can’t see that it’s their problem.”
There was no holding it back now, May blushed.
“I’m pretty bad at complimenting looks.” Ash added “Sorry if it didn’t turn out well.”
“Actually I think that was very sweet.” She said giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
This time it was Ash who blushed. Pikachu however had decided to take a nap and missed the whole discussion.

~*~*~

As the show began all Ash could think about the kiss May had given him. He knew it was just a way of thanking him for his compliment but he still couldn’t stop thinking about it. Ash had been kissed a few times before, one of the earliest he could remember was a girl named Melody who lived in the Orange Islands. Kissing had never meant much to Ash, at least until now.

May meanwhile was thinking more about what Ash had said before she kissed him. It was the most personal compliment she had ever heard. Most compliments she had gotten were about her figure but Ash’s compliment sounded more like he was talking about her rather than her looks. She knew for certain her feelings had changed from a crush to love, the exact feelings she described to Ash the previous night.

The two of them looked up at the sky. The show was very similar to what they had seen back in Houen, they felt like they had gone back in time. Pikachu was the one who enjoyed the show the most.

Once the show ended they headed towards the Pokémon centre. However there was some disappointing news.
“I’m really sorry.” The centre’s Nurse Joy said looking down sadly “I’m afraid so many people came to see the show that we don’t have any rooms left.”
“But we haven’t got any sleeping bags yet and there isn’t a hotel in this town.” May explained.
“Well you could sleep in the main building but I only have one blanket.” Joy replied.
“That’s ok.” Ash cut in “May can use the blanket. I’ve got a sweatshirt on so I won’t be as cold. Plus I’m pretty tired so I’ll probably fall asleep quite soon.”

Ash was not kidding. When Nurse Joy came back with the blanket Ash was already fast asleep. Pikachu fell asleep shortly afterwards.

May was relaxed by still not sleepy. She looked over at Ash who was shivering in his sleep.
“Ash you really need to think about yourself more.” She sighed “You shouldn’t make things inconvenient for yourself just for me.”
She moved closer to the sleeping boy. “We can share this and keep warm together.” And a she relaxed beside him she finally fell asleep.