She hadn’t slept well last night, and she was groggy enough that she was amazed she didn’t wake up Anabel and Iris when she got out of their room at an hour so early that even Lucario and Iris weren’t up and ready to get all of them to go out on a training bit.

She wasn’t hungry or anything, so she didn’t linger in the kitchen, and had taken a step outside. It was still dark, with only the faintest hint of morning visible in the distance. It was just the moon, stars, and the distant lights of Indigo.

In the crisp morning air, she felt more awake... and the fact she hadn’t slept that well had more time to register to her. Mostly as to ‘why’.

Iris and Anabel... had asked Ash to make it official. That they weren’t just having dates, that they’d be dating. Not even just the two of them, but her too and...and…

“Can’t sleep either?”

She almost jumped out of her skin when Ash popped up behind her. She swore and he quickly apologized. She accepted it and the two were just… quiet for a minute. It was just the two of them: no Pikachu, no Psyduck, no one.

“You wouldn’t happen to be awake because of a certain duo’s… invitation by any chance?” she asked as he nodded.

“It was what my dreams were about, yeah,” Ash admitted as she slyly grinned. She hadn’t really slept, and Ash managed to have dreams, huh?

“Oh, anything you want to tell me about those dreams?” She teased, though she felt like she had too much of an edge to it. Like she was daring him to describe his teenage fantasies that Iris and Anabel had invited him on and Ash flinched for some reason. “Sorry...that came out wrong…grumpier than I wanted it to.”

“It was nothing like that… well actually it was two dreams. The first was… well…” Ash blushed a bit, looking like he was struggling to find the words. “Well... um… er… worry.”

“Worry? If you are worried your mom would disprove… she would approve. Trust me.” She hadn’t mentioned it to the other girls and she wasn’t up to admitting it to Ash yet.

“It’s more about you girls being unhappy.”

She stared at Ash in surprise.

“Really? You get offered the dream of every guy and you are worried about us being unhappy? Points for nobility I suppose, but it made it hard for you to sleep?” She could see Ash actually worrying about that, and he wasn’t deflecting from any fantasies of his.

“I mean, you can’t sleep either,” Ash pointed out.

Oh…

“.... You can keep a secret, right?” she prodded.

“I can,” Ash said with certainty.

“...I really… really… really… have to admit it, the reason I couldn’t sleep isn’t because I don’t want to be… official with you. Hardly, you are so nice and kind and sweet and attractive and everything a girl could want. It’s not even the two wanting to be with you too… despite everything that doesn’t bother me anymore. Won’t lie, Iris stealing you away used to scare me a bit.”

“Scared of Iris stealing me?” Ash didn’t seem able to avoid asking. Despite herself, she chuckled.

“Yeah, that was a bit stupid… but what I am supposed to think when the girl who often goes around naked and would have sex if you asked her to comes along and is around you? It was a little stressful… but you get to know Iris and realize that she isn’t that sort of problem. It’s more… I guess a bit of indignation they did that on their own… unless they took confessing I love you as permission. Which... I guess they did. Said they could have a picnic with you without a problem…” she admitted, suddenly feeling like she couldn’t really be that cross at the two now, it just took talking to being aware of how any of that miscommunication happened, as well as how... well, maybe it wasn’t something that bad in the end.

Amazingly even after everything yesterday Ash looked surprised to hear that. She shook her head.

“I don’t get it. I mean… I love teasing you. I love showing myself off for you and seeing you in turn. Yet here I am, scared of going just beyond that. I can stumble onto a date…” she questioned herself aloud.

“I mean, I get it. I’m not sure… I’d have been able to take the big step on my own,” Ash admitted.

“Asking us out or to be your girlfriends scares you more than random Moltres attacks?” It sounded like something she would tease him about, but she instead said it in complete sincerity.

“Yeah… I’m kind of odd like that.”

“That makes two of us, I guess.” Before this night she had slept better than she had since Mewtwo, sharing her room with Iris and Anabel. Yet that made her feel less scared than the final step.

“... What did you decide?”

Ash had a mortified blush at her question, which was odd. Why a mortified blush? So he explained what his second dream was.

“... So you want to make it official with Anabel and Iris, and me when I am ready if I ever am?” she summarized as he nodded, nervously as if he wasn’t sure what she was going to say. Like she might get mad at him for considering everyone’s happiness and not just her own.

Maybe she would have found him ‘waiting for her’ to be… was the word charming… perhaps? But she knew it wasn’t going to be how it worked. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone else, and it wasn’t even ‘fair’ to her.

“Go for it, if you can do one thing for me,” she told him, acceptance in her voice and tone, and he looked a bit surprised at her request and her lack of anger.

“Anything,” Ash said without hesitation.

“After you beat that Johto guy today, I’d like a second date.”

“Sure, wherever you want!” Ash said quickly. She smiled.

“I’d say I’d sleep on it, but I’m sure Iris and Lucario won’t let me. I’ll tell you what I want to do after your battle, and let’s have fun.”

Maybe after that….

“So I had some time to think it over…” was the first thing Ash said to Iris and Anabel after they teleported to a place out from Indigo for early morning physical work. Lucario, who was supervising it, shook his head, but in a familiar way, reminiscing of his master and his own lover. Pikachu was also paying close attention.

‘Oh?’ Anabel wondered aloud, hopeful but with the slightest bit of nervousness to it.

“I slept on it… and some other things…” he started to explain, wondering if he’d have to explain that dream a second time today, and he really…

“Basically he somehow had a dream that was also Belladonna’s dream and he got some advice from her,” Misty thankfully explained that part.

“Oh, Ash can do that too? Anabel entered one of my dreams once,” Iris said in a bit of surprise, and Anabel blushed at the memory. Okay, what was that about?

“...Sort of, but it's random and… well, it isn’t really the point. The thing is… well, I’m not sure what I’ll be doing…”

‘Neither will any of us,’ Anabel countered, but in a hopeful way, like she could see how this was going.

“...but if you want to try it, I’m willing to try with any of you who want to as well. So…”

‘Yes!’ Anabel quickly agreed, and Iris showed her agreement to the idea with a kiss, which was quickly followed by Anabel.

“Okay so we are now officially dating… what does that mean?” he asked after the two kisses were given. Anabel looked to Iris, who shrugged.

“I am following you and Misty’s lead on this. What does being boyfriend and girlfriends change?”

“Um, my lead?” Misty questioned, even as she had to wonder that herself.

“Is it just a step that is really big to take but is nowhere near as hard to take as you think it is, like a needle or something?” Ash had to admit, he was kind of stumped on what to do now that he was actually here.

Lucario and Pikachu shook their heads, but in an amused sort of way.

‘Let’s run on it. We do need to get that done before Ash’s battle after all, and if we are making it more official, let’s make it a bit funnier. Winner gets a kiss from Ash.’ Anabel said in a tone that was both ‘I have an idea’ with the hint of an ambitious plot at play. Iris gave Anabel a scrutinizing look at her suggestion.

“You are always last,” Iris questioned what Anabel was up to.

‘Well, now I’m running with the power of love.’

“That’s not how it works… and wait what do I get if I win?” Misty was also suspicious.

“A kiss.” Iris wasn’t against the challenge, just suspicious of Anabel’s plan. Misty blushed heavily, not exactly saying no but…

“So, what happens if I win?” he asked, surely not able to kiss himself. The girls looked at each other, as if wondering about that themselves.

“Well I guess you… er… kiss the runner up…?” Misty guessed, sounding like she both really much wanted to be the runner up and also dreaded it a bit. She was still a bundle of nerves at jumping into this strange new world they found themselves in relationship-wise.

‘If you win, you can decide what your prize is,’ Anabel said, teasingly in a way to encourage him and in a way that sounded like Anabel was sure that wouldn’t happen.

“You are planning something,” Iris pointedly told Anabel, who didn’t say a word but was grinning.

‘You won’t win anything if you don’t start.’ Lucario broke it up, even as the time-displaced aura user was looking amused at the whole thing.

…

The run was a long one, running along slopes and forests alike someplace between Rota and Indigo. Regardless, the run did give him some time to think about what being in a relationship was going to mean. He’d have to try and be more constantly affectionate. Kissing, holding hands, just that sort of thing. Small things, nothing giant, and it was kind of obvious that was what it would mean now. It just…well it took him some time to realize it, and getting over the initial hurdle of the weight of those words. Yes, he was going to be, if nothing terrible happened, like several of his siblings. But that was okay, and maybe he just had a bad first impression about it. Who’d know for sure, but now he was coming to the end of the run and was right there that Lucario was waiting, and no sign of Anabel, Iris, or Misty. He won! That meant he could win anything he wanted….

And before he could ask himself just what that would be, the air an inch or two in front of him shimmered, some locks of lilac hair brushed into his face, and Anabel, smiling, held her hands to his cheeks.

‘I win!’ she cheekily declared before pulling his face and lips down on hers and claiming a kiss. It felt like his entire body suddenly lit on fire, and when she pulled back she was smiling cheekily.

As was Lucario, even as he told Anabel to run another lap without teleporting, which she did with a smile on her face as she ran off. Iris broke through the woods just in time to see Anabel leave, and she seemed to realize what the entire thing had been about, and looked a bit bemused. And per his own thought on how to try and do the boyfriend thing he went up to Iris and kissed her on the cheek. She looked a bit confused.

“Neither of us won.”

“Yeah, but no reason not to kiss you.” He was sure that one day he could say that a lot more smoothly than he did this time, and as such in a way that didn’t make Pikachu, who was with Lucario, snort. Iris still seemed a bit confused.

“Oh…”

But she kissed him back, so she at least got the idea.

…

“Anabel, you cheat!” Misty shouted, though not angrily, as the girls took a post run soak in a forest pond. Anabel just grinned back, not ashamed in the slightest at what she did.

‘It isn’t cheating if I do more running afterwards, which I did.’

“Yeah but…but….” Misty wanted to find the right words but couldn’t find the right one.

“So I guess you wanted to win instead?” Iris asked, causing her to nod before blushing.

“Yeah! I… er… I mean…”

‘If you wanted to win and use it to say yes to Ash, I’d have let you,’ Anabel guessed, incorrectly, what the problem was and said so sincerely.

“Same,” Iris added.

“It’s not… look I asked Ash for a date today, I… I hope that will let me just say yes. Honestly, we talked earlier and I even said I loved him but I can’t just say I want to be his gir…” She sank a bit into the pool so only the top of her head was visible, still feeling too embarrassed to say it.

“The word seems to scare you guys and mean less than you all seem to think it does,” Iris observed as Anabel nodded.

‘Yeah, kind of weird isn’t it?’

She nodded in agreement to the two, as little as that was probably visible with her nearly submerged and everything.

‘So, what do you have in mind for a date?’ Anabel pressed as she raised her head back out the water.

“I… I have some ideas. I just want to check them first.”

“Like?” Iris inquired, curious about it.

“Dancing.”

‘Oh, like a club or something. I think there are a lot of those in Indigo. Want some help picking one out?’ Anabel offered, sincere about it.

“I would also offer my help, but I would not be of any actual help,” Iris added in her own special way, which was just as sincere as Anabel.

“I…kind of want it to be my own thing. Like how a lot of the dates have been…” she admitted, and the two girls not scared of the G word nodded, not looking offended by her decision or anything.

‘Sure, but let us know if you need any help. We’re here for each other after all.’ Anabel left the door open for her to ask for help.

“Thanks.”

“So, the three of us are dating Ash,” Iris began, including her even though she still was working on her nerves, “who do we tell and who do we keep it secret for?” Iris’s tone was pretty ordinary, if still a bit serious.

‘We should probably not let it drop in Pallet Town. The girls there are already jealous, and they might do something stupid if we brought it up…’

“I think they just wish Ash was not…they used a few words. Mona… Mone…” Iris stumbled on one of them.

“Monopolized?” she offered as Iris nodded.

“Yeah, that word. Hogged too. I know you and I have talked about this, but would it be that wrong to…”

“Let’s not,” she said firmly. She knew that Iris didn’t really get jealous, and she had some idea that Anabel and Iris had talked about Iris’s perspectives on that before, but she doubted going to the town girls and going ‘you can sleep with Ash but we are his girlfriends’ would necessarily go over well. One advantage of Iris including her prematurely was that she didn’t go ‘well you aren’t his girlfriend yet so you don’t count’, or something un-Irisy, and she didn’t press it. She didn’t sound like it was something she cared about, just something that she wondered as a solution to that problem.

‘What about Ash’s mom?’ Anabel next offered. ‘She’s pretty okay with everything, but is telling her that going too far?’

“Oh no, she’s fine with it. Even more so than me actually,” she said without thinking, and now the two girlfriends of Ash were looking at her and she couldn’t take it back. So she, very reluctantly, explained about ‘The Box’.

Anabel joined her in blushing horribly, while Iris…

“Oh, that is good. We can talk to her about anything,” Well, at least she didn’t ask about the instructions, that was good, “What about Professor Oak?”

She and Anabel looked at each other, not sure about that herself.

“Welcome back League fans here and across the world to the second of Indigo’s amazing Top Eight matches today! With the first one in the history books, let’s see who’ll be meeting the victor tomorrow!”

A few hours later the crowd cheered loudly as the announcer (presumably) had the cameras all point at him. He blushed and Pikachu nervously waved at the camera.

“He’s one of the year’s top rookies! He battled through the seven toughest gyms in Kanto and Cerulean to get here today! Give a round of applause for Ash Ketchum!”

And they did, quite loudly. The crowd seemed to get louder and louder each round, as if they were getting closer and closer to exploding. It was almost enough to make him consider earplugs for the opening fluff when he got to the finals.

“And his opponent! A veteran from Johto who represents our neighbor to the west! After three runs for Silver, he’s hoping to see if Indigo is his lucky color! Presenting Dan from Goldenrod City!”

It was almost surprising that, in a league filled with people he had met across two timelines, he still was battling people he’d never met. Part of Ash thought he’d be battling only guys he knew, but here was Dan, who Ash had never seen before.

Said Johtonian finished waving to the crowd before he looked his way from the green stand.

“How’d you beat Sabrina?” Dan asked him. He elaborated at the surprised look on their faces, “I tried to battle her and... honestly I don’t know what happened. I just kind of ended up back at the Pokémon Center beat up like I ran into an army of Whitneys. How’d you do it?”

A fellow survivor of Sabrina? Well, maybe this guy wasn’t completely alien to him after all.

“Er, would you believe it involved a lot of gumption and the power of friendship?” he offered a very vague answer as Dan shrugged.

“Well, I was alone with only my team with me, so I guess that makes some sense. Like to think I have gumption, guess we’ll figure out which of us have more of it.”

“And with the use of ‘gumption’, we find ourselves in a six-on-six battle! No time limits, freedom to substitute Pokémon as you wish, and a full six on six clash to the finish! When one of our battlers has three of their Pokémon knocked out the field will change, and we’ll be starting this battle on the Rock Battlefield! Trainers, begin!”

“Ambipom!”

“Granbull!”

And at the word each of them sent out their own Normal-types. His was the bouncy and energetic Ambipom, who landed with her two tail hands holding her body above the ground, while Dan’s was the bulky and growling Granbull. Said growling even made him and Pikachu flinch, to say nothing of Ambipom.

“Granbull, the Fairy Pokémon, who is in fact a Fairy-type. Granbull’s fearsome jaws are both a fearsome offense and a fearsome defense, the latter of which a Granbull prefers. The species evolves from Snubbull.”

“Wait, it’s a Fairy-type? I thought it was a Normal-type?” he questioned, and it wasn’t just him. Pikachu also gave a confused chirp about that.

“And that is why you didn’t get perfect marks on your test.” The Pokédex snarked instead of explaining why there was confusion on the matter.

“Ambipom, the Long Tail Pokémon yo! It slaps with its two tails and gives out damage without fail! It’s got excellent speed so your best bet is to impede!”

Dan had a Pokédex too, and it talked like...er, that? Well it wasn’t Dan speaking like that…

“Alright, Ambipom, use Double Hit!”

She seemed a bit stunned to see herself described in rhyme, but quickly swung her glowing purple tails towards Granbull, who guarded with both arms. The attack struck, but it didn’t seem to do that much damage to all their confusions as Ambipom retracted her tails.

“Pika?” ‘Ash, you think that scary moment from earlier was Intimidate?’

Maybe. In that case, maybe he could try something else.

“Alright, Ambipom, use Swift!”

Ambipom, still keeping distance from the slower Granbull, swept her tails forward to unleash a barrage of stars that flew towards Granbull in a sweeping tide.

“We can’t get away from those: block them with Snarl!”

Granbull’s jaw glowed with darkness for a moment before spewing out the shadowy attack, which clashed with the Swift briefly before breaking through. It took many Swift stars with it, but Granbull still took the attack even if weakened, and it clearly looked to sting worse than the Double Hit had.

“OH! Granbull doesn’t take that Swift as well as it had the Double Hit! The Snarl might have blunted them, but Swift always gets through!” the announcer declared as Granbull shook itself.

“Earthquake!”

“Watch for the shock wave and then jump!”

Granbull punched the earth and the battlefield shook, a visible shockwave flying towards Ambipom. As he had called she waited for the last minute and hopped over the shockwave, avoiding damage and keeping herself balanced with her two tails.

“Swift!”

Ambipom, doing a flip from where she had landed after dodging the Earthquake, swung her tails and sent out more Swift stars right at Granbull, who glared at them as they came its way.

“Ambipom dodges the Earthquake and fires an unavoidable attack! Granbull will have to weaken the attack with Snarl now!” the announcer predicted.

“Take the Swift and then use Roar!”

Or not.

The Swift slammed into Granbull, shortly afterwards followed by a red shockwave that flew out and wafted into Ambipom, who only had time to sound surprised before she turned red and returned to her Pokéball, while one of his other balls he had on his belt sprung and sent out a very confused second Pokémon to the battle.

“Pri?” ‘Hey, I didn’t hear a ‘Primeape, I choose you?’ Primeape questioned even as Granbull ran right at him, using the confusion to get in close where Granbull was at more of an advantage.

“Play Rough!” Dan ordered as Granbull was on Primeape, punching and headbutting Primeape before his Fighting-type knew what his opponent was. He could see Primeape blocking a few blows, but a final headbutt sent the Timer Ball-held guy flying into a boulder, which cracked from the impact.

“OH! Dan and Granbull escape their pinned position with a combination of Roar and Play Rough! Now Ash is on the back foot!”

Primeape stood back up after the final blow, shaky but still standing.

“Pri! Ma!” ‘You ugly, misshapen…’

Ash ignored the terrible following insults, except to remember to tell Bulbasaur to try and get Primeape to not use such words in the future. It actually looked like those words hurt Granbull’s feelings, though outside of the eyes it wasn’t easy to tell.

“Primeape, show your aggression outside of snorting and use Mega Kick!”

“Earthquake!”

Dan had given the order mid-way through his sentence, and the real kicker of the Earthquake was that Primeape did avoid the shock wave from the attack with a hop, he didn’t avoid the boulder’s collapse as many large stones fell on him at once. The crowd cheered at the two-phased attack, and even more when the ref made the call.

“Primeape is unable to battle!”

“Granbull, return for now!” Dan returned his Fairy-type as he returned Primeape. Pikachu shook his head.

“Pi….” ‘I swear there is a moral in this. Don’t insult your opponent with needless cruelty, or they drop rocks on you and end your fighting day real quick.’

“Arbok, go!” Dan sent out his second Pokémon in the form of the same snake used by Jessie and Joshua alike.

“Arbok, the Cobra Pokémon and a pure Poison Type that evolves from Ekans. Arbok patterns vary between populations: as the Kanto-Johto branch of the species have a different terrifying pattern on their hoods than their Kalosian brethren. They primarily battle with venoms.” The Pokédex spoke up for a bit on Arbok.

“Pikachu, you’re up!” He gave his friend a nudge, who happily jumped onto the field with sparking cheeks. Like with Granbull he felt a strong sense of unease that Pikachu shared, likely another Intimidate.

“And we start the next battle! After Dan turned around a rough matchup with a brilliant Roar and Play Rough combination, can he keep the momentum up?”

“Dig!”

Dan made the first move by having Arbok burrow into the earth.

“Pikachu, use Quick Attack and jump between the boulders at super speed!”

Pikachu nodded before speeding up towards the first boulder, bounding off it to the second, then the third, then the fourth. Pikachu kept the dance up as Dan watched Pikachu warily. Pikachu was not giving Arbok anything easy to aim at.

So when Arbok did spring out of the ground, the snake missed Pikachu by a good yard or so and just in time for Pikachu to bounce off a rock again.

“Now use Volt Tackle!”

Pikachu bounced off the last rock before coating himself in electricity, flying at the mid-air Arbok like a missile. The extra speed giving Volt Tackle an oomph that, hopefully, made up for Intimidate. Pikachu struck Arbok dead on, sending the snake spinning through the air and crashing to the ground below. The serpent got back up as Pikachu landed on a distant stone, wincing a bit from the recoil of Volt Tackle but still in far better shape than Arbok was.

“Sludge Bomb!” Dan ordered as the snake horked up the sludge attack towards Pikachu, whose tail rose instinctively.

“Iron Tail!”

Pikachu swung his now-metallic tail like a bat and struck the oncoming Sludge Bomb, sending it flying back at Arbok at twice the speed. The snake had only a moment to give a nervous ‘Charbo?’ before the attack struck and knocked Arbok into the arena wall. The referee darted over to make a call and made it pretty quickly.

“Arbok is unable to battle!”

The crowds cheered as Dan returned his poison type, apologizing about how that battle had gone. Pikachu gave a content ‘chaa’ on his rock, happy as always to beat an Arbok in three moves or less.

“And with that we have a tied match! This battle between rookie and veteran is far from certain! All we can say for sure now is that it is far from being over! Who will be Dan’s next Pokémon, and how will Ash respond!?”

“Steelix!” Dan declared as he threw a Heavy Ball, which burst and let out the massive steel serpent, who roared loudly at Pikachu.

“Pikachu, come back!” Ash quickly decided as Pikachu darted back up to his shoulder. Pikachu could battle another Pokémon later who he had a better matchup with than Steelix. Until then he could use either Charizard or Kingler.

“Kingler, I choose you!”

He went with the latter as his fourth Pokémon faced Dan’s third.

“It’s going to have a heavyweight clash of physical brutes! Who's going to come out victorious in this battle!?”

“Use Head Smash!” Dan shouted as Steelix flung its massive body at Kingler, the entire axe-like head of the steel-type glowing a vibrant blue.

“Pi!?” ‘Since when did Steelix learn that attack!?’

“Kingler, use Crabhammer in both your claws to block it!” Ash didn’t have time to answer that question as Kingler’s claws glowed brightly and were swung right into the head at the right moment to exert maximum defensive counterforce. The attacks collided, sending out a shockwave that shattered a nearby boulder into crumbles, and both Steelix and Kingler were blown back. He’d guess that it was probably Steelix who won the clash, though he didn’t think Kingler had taken much damage from it. He remembered Head Smash was a recoil move, and the lack of a wince made him guess that this Steelix had Rock Head as its ability. Steelix would not defeat itself, that was going to be on Kingler.

“Iron Tail!” Dan followed up as Steelix swept its tail on the ground, low enough to prevent Kingler from ducking underneath, swinging towards Kingler.

“Kingler, jump over the tail and use Bubblebeam!” He countered as Kingler hopped up, to Dan’s clear shock, and blasted at Steelix with a barrage of bubbles before Steelix could react. The bubbles hit Steelix’s main body, causing the giant serpent to tumble, its tail flailing. Kingler avoided the wild tail and landed beyond the tail’s reach as Steelix rose back up, growling at Kingler for the strike that had landed.

“Earthquake!” Dan got things going again with an order for Steelix to slam its tail into the ground, sending shockwaves flying in all directions. Kingler tensed as the shockwaves came closer and closer.

“Get over the shockwaves!” He countered as Kingler again hopped over an oncoming attack, only for Steelix to do something different this time, speeding right up to where Kingler was in the midst of the dodge.

“Thunder Fang!”

Steelix’s jaws sparked with electrical force before Steelix took a bite on Kingler’s right claw, shocking Kingler with a continuous surge of electrical force. Worse was how Steelix was lifting Kingler over the field so he couldn’t have Kingler use Metal Claw to redirect the electricity.

“Pikapi!” ‘I think Dan guessed that it isn’t just Charizard who can do that move!’

“And Steelix continues to fry Kingler while leaving the crab dangling helplessly from the mighty maw of Steelix! Can Ash do anything to stop a second knockout!?” the announcer hammily asked the ground as he looked at Kingler’s flopping arms. Steelix was holding Kingler in a way that would make Kingler hard to twist upwards or aim, and with a bite on his claws could the bubbles…

Well, he didn’t know if the bubbles came from the non-claw parts or not, but he did have an idea about something that was a bit more flexible than that.

“Use Mud Shot!”

He could see Kingler’s eyes widen through the pain-induced squint and fired the mud from both claws. The mud from the free claw spattered pointlessly, but the mud from the trapped claw…

“Gurrggghhh!” Steelix choked as the Iron Snake Pokémon let go of Kingler, spitting out Kingler alongside the mud.

“Now Crabhammer!” Ash finished it off by having Kingler spin mid-fall and strike Steelix with two glowing claws. Steelix topped over in a loud boom as Kingler landed, weakened but still standing, as Steelix was declared unable to battle.

“Steelix, return!” Dan returned his fallen titan with a nod. “You did great, and we can use this to our advantage.”

‘This’, Ash guessed, was Kingler being nearly defeated. Ash was going to guess there was an unspoken ‘Typhlosion’s biggest obstacle is weakened.’

“Go!” Dan sent out his fourth Pokémon, which was a Victreebel, which let out a shriek that terrified James of all timelines.

“Victreebel, the Flycatcher Pokémon. This Grass and Poison type shows affection for those humans they love by affectionately swallowing them. This is different from trying to eat them, as they would fully force the human inside themselves to do so.” The Pokédex confirmed that James was never in any actual danger, but that was for later and this was now.

“Kingler, do you want to stay in?” he asked his tired crab. Kingler was probably not going to be in a place to be able to fight Typhlosion for a long battle later, but there wasn’t really any reason to keep Kingler in this fight. Kingler signaled for him to be returned, and he returned his Water-type for this matchup.

“Exeggutor, I choose you!”

“And Ash Ketchum sends out his own Grass-type! It’s a battle of the jungle tonight folks! Both of these Grass-types won their trainers the third round, so who’ll walk away from this round in victory!?”

That was a different Exeggutor. His Pokédex called this Exeggutor the eighth one. He had a less… iffy way to differentiate it.

“Sunny Day!” He gave the first call as his Exeggutor’s leaves shimmered and the light in the area brightened up. This Exeggutor was the one who knew Sunny Day and Solar Beam. And so…

“Solar Beam!”

“Dodge!”

Exeggutor’s foliage glowed yellow before firing the laser beam at Victreebel, who swerved out of the way surprisingly fast. Victreebel then appeared behind Exeggutor, the leaf limbs of the yellow pitcher plant glowing purple.

“Poison Jab!” Dan named the move.

“Teleport away!”

And his Exeggutor did, moving quite fast itself as it appeared on a somewhat distant boulder top as Victreebel struck empty air.

“Both of our Grass-types have the same ability. I hope you weren’t thinking you were going to outspeed us with your Chlorophyll. Poison Jab!” Dan ordered as Victreebel lunged towards Exeggutor at top speed.

“Get away from it!” Ash counter-ordered as Exeggutor vanished on another boulder. This repeated a few times before a teleport gave Exeggutor some space to act.

“Confusion!”

Each of Exeggutor’s faces had glowing blue eyes as Victreebel sped towards it for another attack, only to let out a shocked shriek as it was immobilized and then flung into a rockface.

Victreebel hopped from the cracked boulder, looking damaged but still standing.

“Seed Bomb!”

“Solar Beam!”

It was the clash of grass attacks next as Victreebel dashed around the field, blasting large seeds at Exeggutor in a spray of projectiles. Exeggutor burned them apart with the solar lasers, though Victreebel darted around fast enough to avoid the attacks and did strike Exeggutor with a Seed Bomb attack here and there.

Victreebel would shortly after the third hit lunge at Exeggutor with a Poison Jab, but Exeggutor teleported away from the direct strike and appeared on a nearby rock, eyes already glowing.

“Confusion!”

Victreebel was ensnared by the psychic grip once more, then slammed into the ground by Exeggutor.

“Solar Beam!” The bind and slam was quickly followed by the solar blast that flew right at target, still stunned and unmoving. This could be it.

“Quickly, counter with the Weather Ball!” Dan said as a red glow appeared within Victreebel’s gullet. It quickly shot out and cut through the Solar Beam, gaining a fierier, larger size as it flew through. It soon struck Exeggutor, tumbling the grass-type.

“No! Exeggutor!” He shouted in shock.

“Tor….” Exeggutor weakly mumbled as the referee ran over to it.

“Exeggutor is unable to battle!”

And with that the scoreboard was matched with two knockouts each.

“Return! You did a great job!” he said in thanks to Exeggutor as the sun faded.

“Ambipom, go!”

He sent Ambipom back out as Victreebel looked ready to go for another bout. It had taken damage but it looked in better shape than Kingler was.

“Stun Spore!” Dan started the battle off by having Victreebel expel a cloud of yellow dust from its maw that swept across the field in a sweeping cloud.

“Hop over the Stun Spore and use Swift!”

Ambipom nodded and, using her tails, launched herself above the Stun Spore and fired the Swift down at Victreebel, which struck the plant and sent it to the dirt. Ambipom then descended from her jump towards Victreebel, who got back up and fired a Seed Bomb from within itself.

Ambipom knocked the Seed Bomb back with one tail glowing with a reddish Power-up Punch, which missed but deflected it and gave her a bit of extra strength for the next attack.

“Stun Spore!”

“Use Shadow Claw to waft it away, then strike!”

It was going to be close, but Ambipom first wafted the air in front of herself with Shadow Claw, using the shadowy construct to shield her tail from the spores, and then shot the second tail forward with its own Shadow Claw.

The Shadow Claw struck Victreebel, though he and Pikachu winced as some Stun Spore did land on Ambipom as the attack hit.

Her landing was thus not graceful, though Victreebel was still pounded into the earth by Shadow Claw and prone on the ground.

“Victreebel is unable to battle!” the Ref declared while Ambipom winced with an onset of paralysis.

“And that’s the first round folks! Ash Ketchum leads his opponent four Pokémon to three after intense battle action! Don’t go far folks, as the intermission isn’t too long. But first, a word from our sponsors!”

…

‘Getting something for you to eat, line long. Should get to you before break is over’ .

He noted the text with a smile, as he was feeling hungry. That half of the battle was intense, and a snack before the next round would be great.

“Pikachu-Pi Pika-Chu.” ‘And I’m sure being brought to you by some pretty ladies isn’t a bad thing either, is it?’

He laughed at Pikachu’s sly comment, one that yesterday would probably have made him much more flustered. He was still blushing but, hey, that was another benefit of the relationship change. Pikachu could no longer tease him as badly.

“There you are.” Gary interrupted his laugh as his childhood friend and rival walked over to catch him in the in-between battle locker area.

“Oh hey Gary! Sorry I didn’t see a lot of your match with Solidad…”

Gary shrugged.

“It was far too early in the morning and you had your own match to see. Plus, what was there to see?”

Gary had lost his match with Solidad, though the way Gary talked about it…

“Gary, the match wasn’t some slaughter or something like, er, if you battled that one guy from a few years ago over in Sinnoh.” Also known as Tobias. “It lasted a good while.”

“I still lost, and that stings. I mean, I’m happy I got this far and even more so I beat Paul but… like I know I said I’d be fine with losing but it still stings.” Gary admitted, looking like he was questioning his words from yesterday.

“You still did great. There are like a thousand people who were less awesome than you were this year, and that includes Joshua.”

“If I did worse than that lug I’d have to change my name.” Gary almost smiled at the latter’s status. “Though don’t you think of losing to this ‘Dan’ guy. Red might be less of a jerk than Paul is, but I still want to see him creamed. And I’d rather see you do it than Koga or that Neesha girl.”

“Hey, Ritchie might be the one to do it,” Ash pointed out, kind of wanting to see that himself. Gary rolled his eyes.

“Just because he and Red look like you doesn’t mean that they are going to be unstoppable weirdos like you. Red’s weird like you but in a different way, but Ritchie seems like a normal guy. Sure he likes hats too much…”

“You don’t have unruly hair though.”

Gary snorted.

“Yes, and hats make hair better. Hat hair, what’s that?”

They both laughed at that, and were soon joined in by Pikachu.

“Still, really, don’t lose.” Gary requested as he nodded. He had no intention to. Gary then grinned.

“Well, at least two good things seemed to have come from my first league.”

“Oh, beating Paul and being better than…what fraction of Pallet Town is a thousand plus people again?” He guessed as Gary grinned.

“You seem to finally be into girls who aren’t my sister. That’s an achievement worth a few badges for.”

He made a choking coughing noise as Gary and Pikachu both laughed at him.

“Though I did hear from my grandfather a certain pretty Kalosian is watching. You know, maybe if she’d had gotten off that butt of hers she could be the one to get you in the end, whichever of those three did. Ah well, if she shows up she does have a pretty butt that’s fine later and… wait is your Pikachu trying to give me the finger?”

Pikachu was indeed doing so as he blocked the gesture with his hand.

“Er, sorry about that, he’s kind of weird like that. Really Pikachu, he was just teasing and he wasn’t being serious.”

“Pikaka.”

Fortunately, Gary didn’t require him to clarify that he was not going to translate Pikachu’s response, which was certainly more mean than suggesting that Gary was a serial stamp licker like Drew wasn’t.

“Well, good luck in love and war. Don’t blow your advantage too quickly.”

“I won’t.”

And with that Gary departed.

…

After his fuel break and a kiss or two, it was back to battling.

“Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the second round of this Top 8 Indigo League Full Battle! Right now the lead is with Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town with two knockouts to the visiting Dan’s three! However, Dan still has two more Pokémon who haven’t battled while Ash only has one completely fresh Pokémon remaining! It’s still anyone’s game and the battle resumes on the Ice Field!”

The field was now an ice-covered version of their earlier rock field, though he knew that it wasn’t as simple as that. It was entirely ice and if it got too hot….it would be a battle in the water.

Though as to which Pokémon he’d send out first… he wanted to keep Charizard for last and he wanted to keep his momentum going. Kingler was pretty worn out and Ambipom was still going to suffer from Stun Spore, so there was only one choice.

“Pikachu, I choose you!”

“Granbull go!”

And so the next leg of the battle began with Pikachu hopping back out and Granbull landing on the ice, almost slipping before getting back to his feet, with Pikachu shivering from a fresh dose of Intimidate. Iron Tail wouldn’t be as strong, but the ice would make Granbull less agile with that big and heavy jaw.

“Alright Pikachu, stand your ground and use Thunderbolt!”

Pikachu’s cheeks sparked before, without jumping, firing the bolt of electricity towards Granbull. Granbull almost seemed to grin before leaning its head to the right and shifting its body to slide or skate quickly, avoiding Thunderbolt and the ice hazards. Dan grinned as he caught his surprise.

“Nice trick, isn’t it? Practiced it for my Mahogany Gym battle and it comes in handy, as does this move. Fire Fang!”

Granbull’s ice maneuvers, guided in part by its massive head, shifted towards Pikachu and approached with surprising speed as Granbull’s jaw glistened with fire.

Pikachu lifted his tail with readiness for Iron Tail, but with the Intimidate would that be enough, plus the Fire Fang? He’d have to try something else.

“Pikachu, use Zap Cannon!”

Pikachu stood up as Granbull approached, forming the heavy electric ball in between his hands as Granbull approached, ready to strike. Granbull adjusted its head to avoid a head-on collision, but Pikachu placed his tail against the ice and, using his tail as a spring, propelled himself forward in the direction of Granbull’s turn. Granbull yelped as the Zap Cannon struck it right in the chest, sending it spinning around the ice like a massive purple hockey puck. The Fairy-type wasn’t out, standing up after a few hits against the ice peaks of the field, but winced as paralysis static flared up.

“And Pikachu lands a Zap Cannon! That’s guaranteed paralysis! Granbull is going to feel that now!” The announcer blasted in an excited tone as Pikachu’s cheeks sparked eagerly.

“Let’s keep it up! Thunderbolt!” Pressing the advantage Pikachu once more fired a Thunderbolt, after a quick use of Iron Tail to slam into the ice and keeping from slipping from any remaining momentum from the tail push, at Granbull, who shook off the paralysis before using that same sliding technique to move quickly out of the way of the Thunderbolt.

“Use Snarl while keeping on the move!” Dan called as Granbull, still using its massive head like a ship wheel, skated across the ice, blasting black Snarl attacks towards Pikachu, who used his tail to speed just out of the way of the attack before getting behind an ice growth. With Pikachu no longer in direct danger, it was counter-attack time.

“Use Iron Tail to launch yourself into the air, then Thunderbolt!”

Pikachu nodded, using his Iron Tail and a back-flip to half scale the ice and then, with a spring-like coil boost, shot up into the air, his cheeks sparking, for an aerial Thunderbolt that flew right at Granbull. The purple Intimidate user was ready to dodge it again, but paralysis from Zap Cannon flared up just then, and the Thunderbolt hit home.

Granbull collapsed in defeat shortly after and Pikachu landed, somewhat ungracefully as he almost slipped, on the ice below.

“Granbull is unable to battle!”

The crowds cheered in excitement as Pikachu was still quite ready for more battle. Dan returned Granbull with a smile.

“You did good, now take a good rest. The others can take care of it. Now go!”

And one of the ‘others’ in question landed on the field, the back of its fur bursting into flames in eagerness for battle.

“Typhlo!” Declared the Typhlosion.

“Pi.” ‘This is a bit off script,’ Pikachu said what he was thinking. He was sure that he was going to save that Pokémon for last, but maybe he really did have Ampharos as his final Pokémon. Though he could still work with that.

“Typhlosion, the Volcano Pokémon. Typhlosion are Fire-types whose fur is coated in special oils that prevent it from igniting, though these same oils can be used to fuel massive explosions. The heat it generates can be used for both attacks and evasion,” the Pokédex explained as Pikachu readied himself.

“Never battled one of these before, it should be fun.” He grinned, and it was true. He had never actually battled a Typhlosion. He’d run into plenty of Meganium, Feraligatr, and Quilava, but never a Typhlosion. Dan seemed to get a bit more confidence at hearing that.

“Well we’ll try to make it memorable for you then. Flamethrower!”

“Thunderbolt!”

And the two attacks collided mid-field, with the Flamethrower pushing Thunderbolt back a bit before the two attacks blew each other up. The explosion had torn a hole in the ice, and he was sure that Dan had noticed the hole just as much as he had, but what either of them could use the hole for could come to mind later. First came hitting Typhlosion.

“Use Volt Tackle!”

It was a bit more of a ‘Volt Sliding’ attack at points if Ash had to be completely honest with himself, but it was still moving at high speed towards Typhlosion and would hurt when it connected.

“Flare Blitz!” countered Dan, whose Typhlosion was engulfed in flames before charging at Pikachu himself. The two attacks collided, and Pikachu got the worst of it as he was sent flying. While Typhlosion took some recoil and couldn’t follow up on it, Pikachu looked like he had taken a beating and recoil so that was zero for two.

“That’s probably the most powerful Pikachu I’ve seen yet, but my Typhlosion’s stronger than him. You can’t touch him with Pikachu.” Dan declared as Ash took a glance at his wrist. If Typhlosion wasn’t Dan’s last Pokémon, it was probably Ampharos and if it did Mega Evolve…that would be his only chance to use a Z-move. Typhlosion could overpower Thunderbolt, but it couldn’t beat out Gigavolt Havoc.

“Pikachu, get ready!” he declared, quickly swapping out his Z-crystal from Normalium to Electrium as Pikachu prepared himself. Typhlosion and Dan cautiously watched them as Typhlosion looked ready to do something. Maybe an Endure like Bruno had used? Pikachu could use Quick Attack if that happened, they wouldn’t fall for the same counter twice.

He did a different set of moves than with Tauros yesterday, his arms meeting where his elbows bent together. Light surged into Pikachu, but it wasn’t going to be Breakneck Blitz. It was Gigavolt Havoc. Maybe they had planned to use Counter to block it, but that wouldn’t work. In fact, Dan’s eyes seemed to alight with a realization he was using a different move, so they would get him.

“Gigavolt Havo…”

“Roar!”

Typhlosion let out a bellow that crossed the field, striking Pikachu just as he formed the large yellow ball of electricity in front of his hands. Pikachu was sent flying into the air, a surprised squeak coming out of his lips, as Gigavolt Havoc was fired not at Typhlosion, but harmlessly into the air as Pikachu turned into red energy and vanished, as he rarely did, into his Pokéball as one of his other Pokéballs opened against its will and sent out a confused Ambipom. Seconds later Gigavolt Havoc exploded in the air like a firework, completely harmless to Typhlosion.

“Wowww! Dan countered Ash’s surprise Z-Move from yesterday with a Roar attack! Ash might have surprised him back with a second type of Z-Move, an electric type Gigavolt Havoc, but Dan’s counter-strategy still worked to perfection!” The announcer could just be heard over the wild shouts of the crowd at the surprise of that move, and Dan grinned.

“Great job, Typhlosion. That’s the Z-Move taken care of, now we can make this field work for us.”

“Ty!”

And with that Dan returned Typhlosion before he took out a Lure Ball and sent out his final Pokémon, the red tentacled Octillery. Typhlosion was his final Pokémon after all.

“Octillery, the Jet Pokémon and the evolved form of Remoraid. This Water-type evolved to better fire strong bursts of water at its foes, and uses its tentacles to anchor itself in place to prevent recoil. A recent scientific theory postulates that it is a relative of the extinct Omanyte and that Remoraid developed after Octillery evolved.” The Pokédex informed him of some factoids about Octillery as he took a breath.

Sure, they stopped him from using the Z-Move properly, but he still had the lead and he knew plenty more about Octillery than Typhlosion. They could hide in things, they could use Fire-attacks, and Octazooka was one of its most powerful attacks. He could win this and focus all his attention on Typhlosion. Seconds after that thought came to mind Pikachu’s ball burst open and he shook it off, climbing up to his shoulder and glaring at Dan for putting him in there.

“Ambipom, let’s beat Octillery quickly! Let’s start with Swift!”

“Bubblebeam!”

The two Pokémon fired their own ranged attacks: a spiral of stars from Ambipom’s two swinging tails and a barrage of bubbles from Octillery’s beak. The two collided mid-field and exploded with no clear winner. Time to get closer.

“Use Power-Up Punch to propel yourself towards Octillery, then use Focus Punch!”

Ambipom placed both of her tails against an ice rock, pressing them into the surface as they glowed red and she flung herself at Octillery, spinning mid-flight to point two glowing blue tails in Octillery’s direction.

“Charge Beam!” shouted Dan as Octillery fired an electric bolt.

“Block it!” he countered and Ambipom moved to do so, but a surge of paralysis caused her to wince and the attack struck Ambipom. She was blown off course and landed on the ice in a hard thump.

“Ambipom is shot down! Ash’s Normal-type might be agile, but that Stun Spore is not cooperating with her!” The announcer hammed it up as Dan continued the pressure.

“Bubblebeam!”

“Dodge and use Swift!”

Ambipom got over the flare up in time to propel herself in the air before the bubbles could hit her, and quickly spun the Swift out again. This time Octillery couldn’t fire back, and they hit Octillery. Octillery shook off the hit, dazed but far from down, as Ambipom landed on the ice with both hand tails for stability.

“Octazooka!” Dan called for Octillery’s most famous attack as a black orb of water and ink formed in front of Octillery’s mouth, building power as it grew larger and larger. Ambipom looked ready to hop, but she winced as a burst of paralysis kicked in. Dan grinned as the attack was fired right at Ambipom, but soon it was time for his own grin. As the paralysis was only momentary.

“Use Counter-Shield!”

Ambipom had two ways of using the technique, but she had time to only do the one developed to work with Golbat and Farfetch’d. With Power-up Punch she spun in place like a top, shredding the oncoming Octazooka and sending bits of it firing everywhere. It blasted and slammed everything, even a few hits on Octillery from what it sounded like. Ink was thrown into the air like some sort of dusty mist, obscuring the field.

“I can’t see…” he complained, “Ambipom, try to get out of that cloud before Octillery can counter-attack!”

It was silent for a few minutes before something moved in the dark cloud, and Ambipom rocketed herself out of the dust with a Power-up Punch rocket jump. She landed just outside of the crowd next to his end of the field, wincing as the paralysis bothered her moments later.

“Pom!” ‘Argh, that Stun Spore’s killing me.’

“Hang in there Ambipom, if that took out Octillery you can take a rest.” He assured her. Hopefully with Pikachu, Charizard, and Kingler this could be the last of her fight for today.

“Pikapi.” ‘Where’s Octillery though?’ Pikachu wondered, and it was hard to see in the smoke. Could the ref even see? The field wasn’t quiet though, as there was a sound coming from it. Growing of all things, and the cracking of ice.

“Folks I have…no idea what is going on right now, but it sounds like something is happening. Is the ice breaking…no…” The announcer shared his confusion, “but wait, it looks like the smoke is finally clearing and we can see it live folks! And what I see is…a bunch of nothing?”

The field was in fact empty with no sign of Octillery anywhere. Pikachu sniffed the air before wincing.

“Chu.” ‘I can’t smell anything but ink.’

Where Pikachu had his nose Ash had his eyes, and he saw the hole that had been made earlier in the ice. Or more accurately, he didn’t see it, but he saw the craggy, jagged, new ice growth over the place the hole had been. He in fact saw a lot of those little places all over the field, and it might have just been his imagination but the ice seemed thicker in a lot of places.

“Ambipom, Octillery is under the ice!” He guessed as Dan looked impressed that he guessed it. He pointed to a spot in the ice that looked about as thick as it had been at the start. “There! That spot looks thin, break through it!”

Ambipom nodded as Focus Punch ignited on both her tails and she jumped into the air, flying towards one of several un-strengthened spots in the ice and was ready to slam into it with all her strength…

“Octazooka!” Dan shouted with a hard stomp to the ice, which was probably the more audible part. Before Ambipom could strike the thin ice area the ice suddenly flashed black, before exploding like a bomb and firing everything upwards at Ambipom: the attack, raw chunks of ice, everything. It was a full on explosion, and Ambipom was sent flying to the field with a hard thump.

“Ambipom is unable to battle!” The ref declared, as the now exposed block of ice was given Ice Beams to start rebuilding it from below.

“The field is now Octillery’s to exploit! The slippery octopus is probably using the bottom of the ice like its own personal climbing wall with its powerful suction cups, and can Ash do anything about it other than watch his Pokémon blow up!?”

“Return Ambipom! You were awesome!” He returned his now battered Normal-type as he had to wonder just how he was going to get around this. The ice was a giant shield that would make it hard to hit Octillery anywhere but where Octillery could attack back. He could see a few of those weak spots on the ice, but if Octillery wasn’t near them they’d just be hitting empty air. If Octillery was there they’d be blown up.

“Pikapi!” ‘I can break through the ice and fry the water below.’ Pikachu offered. It was a good idea, but he wanted to see if he could get some control of the arena on his own terms first.

“Charizard, I choose you!”

Specifically throwing Charizard’s ball over the field, the flying Fire-type stayed airborne as the scoreboard updated. Now they both knew what the other had to use for the rest of the battle, and no more surprises from either of them. Hopefully, because unless he could create Mega Stones he didn’t really have any other way to surprise.

“Charizard, use Flamethrower to melt a hole in the ice, and stay flying so Octillery can’t get a read on your location!”

Charizard dutifully followed the call, blasting the ice down with a scorching flamethrower that immediately started to steam the ice and melt it. The sound of a crackling Ice Beam followed as it sounded like Octillery was rebuilding the ice as Charizard worked to melt it. The exchange went on for about a half minute before he had Charizard cut the fire off, at which point the area around the impact zone could be described as a chaotic mix of melting gaps and erratic growths in the ice.

“Zzrrr.” ‘You need me to get closer if you want this to get anywhere!’

“Chu.” ‘But if you do that, you will get blasted with Octazooka.’

Two equally valid points. Octillery did not have any limit to how long it could stay under the ice, and it was up to them to try and get it into a vulnerable place. If there was a rule on time, maybe he could have Charizard just stay out of range until he won from having more Pokémon still active, but there were no time limits. They’d just tire themselves out waiting for Octillery to do the same, and then there would still be Typhlosion. No, there had to be a way to get Octillery to come out or open a new way to hit it, but the ice…

The ice….

“Charizard, use Flamethrower on any spot on the field you want for thirty seconds!”

Charizard flew closer to do so, but he did, blasting the field away from his first spot with a torrent of flames. After a few seconds the sound of a counter Ice Beam came from below as the field started to become chaotic again. This would be close…

“Return Charizard! Go Kingler, use Crabhammer!”

He did it as quickly as he could. With one hand he returned Charizard, throwing Kingler’s ball just as Charizard turned into red energy and vanished. Kingler’s ball was thrown right out to where Charizard had been blasting, striking the unstable ice with the full force of his unyielding strength. Kingler’s blow shattered the ice around him, exposing a large crack in the ice and seeing a flash of red right where Octillery was hiding.

“Octillery, use Octazooka!” Dan shouted urgently, seeming quite shocked at how fast that switch had happened.

“Use Crabhammer!”

“Koo!” Kingler put his back into the Crabhammer, even as Octillery fired the black blast of Octazooka. The two attacks collided and the explosion did not just go one way, it went everywhere. And once more the field was covered in black smoke.

“Wow! Ash Ketchum’s hand to hand skills were as fast as the wind with a near-instant swapping of his Charizard and Kingler to expose Octillery! But that Octazooka is as big as ever! Did Kingler manage to deflect any of it away!?”

“Kingler! Hang in there!”

“Octillery!” Dan shouted in worry as the smoke cleared faster this time. First thing that Ash saw was a large orange claw laying motionless. As more of the obscuring cloud dispersed the state of Kingler became clear.

“Kingler is unable to battle!”

However, it wasn’t all, as the smoke also revealed an upside down Octillery, also not moving in a now massive hole in the ice.

“Octillery is unable to battle!”

The crowds cheered at the draw as both he and Dan returned their Water-types.

“Kingler you were great. Take a long rest.”

“You halved his team for us, that’s great.” Dan thanked Octillery’s Lure Ball as he took out his last ball.

“Typhlosion, it’s all up to you!”

“Charizard, I choose you!”

On the ice field the two Fire Starters landed, both avoiding the ice hole and staring down the other.

“Folks this is a second round of Fire on Fire starter action from Ash Ketchum this season! He’s got an eye for a good show, but will this go as well as his bout with Incineroar?!”

“Flamethrower!” They both called out as the two attacks collided mid-field, and they were evenly matched before mutually destroying the other. Charizard snorted in anticipation of this fight while Typhlosion grinned eagerly at the clash that was to come.

“Let’s get speed on our side! Use Flame Charge!”

Charizard ignited himself and flew at Typhlosion, who guarded with both arms and took the attack. It did little damage, but it wasn’t the point.

“Flame Charge again!”

Charizard turned around, speeding up with Pignite’s attack right back at Typhlosion. He’d get the definitive speed advantage in this fight and…

“Gyro Ball!” Dan countered as Typhlosion did the same sort of jump it might to use Flame Wheel, but instead of igniting Typhlosion was surrounded in a shining blue light. Gyro Ball clashed with Flame Charge, and Charizard was the one knocked back.

“Typhlosion counters with Gyro Ball! Gyro Ball is a move that is stronger when the user is slower, so Ash’s Flame Charges have been turned against him!” the announcer added as Dan quickly ordered a Thunder Punch and Typhlosion broke out of the spin to strike the vulnerable Charizard, punching him in the chest and knocking him to the ground. Charizard stood back up quickly after the blow, but he winced once he got up. That Thunder Punch had hurt.

“We need to try something different, use Flame Charge!” Ash knew it sounded like he was doing something similar, but he had an idea. Charizard wasn’t sure what it was of course, nor did anyone else, but he used Flame Charge and flew at Typhlosion, who warily watched the approaching foe. As did Dan.

“You’re trying something: use Gyro Ball!” Dan decided for the counter, waiting to see what his plan was.

“Now swing into Iron Tail!”

Charizard, just before he got in range of Gyro Ball, swerved and broke off Flame Charge, powering up his tail and slamming Typhlosion with a powerful tail sweep. The slam sent Typhlosion flying into an ice rock, smashing it. Charizard landed on the ice as Typhlosion emerged from the ice rock, bruised but still standing.

“Flamethrower!” They both called as both of them let out the ranged attack, with Charizard’s moving faster but the two attacks were still equal and blew up without hitting either Fire-type.

“Quick Attack!” Dan followed up the exchange with Typhlosion speeding towards Charizard, using the ice to add to speed with specific footwork. With the speed Typhlosion body-checked Charzard, slamming shoulder first into him.

“Dragon Claw!”

Which was followed by Charizard slashing Typhlosion back with Dragon Claw, sending Typhlosion flying but far from sending it down.

“The Fire-types aren’t given up folks! The slogging fight isn’t giving an inch!”

“Flame Charge!”

Charizard moved faster than Typhlosion could initially react, flying right into the Johtonian starter while cloaked in flames. Initially being the key word.

“Thunder Punch!”

As Typlosion countered by punching through Charizard’s flames and striking against with another super-effective electric attack. Charizard dropped the Flame Charge, staggering from the blow, but still standing.

“Slash!”

And able to strike back.

“Thunder Punch!”

The two attacks clashed, claw to fist, the two not giving any inch. Dan narrowed his eyes, narrowing his own thoughts on how to proceed from this point, where Dan seemed to get an idea first, and it came from a sudden flare up from Typhlosion’s fire. Charizard seemed to get what was going to happen, and looked not at him, but at Pikachu, and Pikachu looked back.

He didn’t need Aura to know what was being said without words. It was something like ‘win this for me’.

“You’ll need to take some punishment from Pikachu afterwards, but alright. Blast Burn!” Dan ordered as Typhlosion’s fire vents fired up massively, Typhlosion glowing red before unleashing a massive fire attack right into Charizard. Charizard was blown away by the sheer strength of the attack, which also melted a massive new hole in the ice in the entire path of the attack.

Typhlosion was steaming, wincing like the aftermath of a Giga Impact attack, as Charizard floated in the now gaping gash in the ice. It looked like Typhlosion wanted to end the battle while it still believed it could win against Pikachu.

“Charizard is unable to battle!”

“Return! You did a great job; we’ll finish the rest.”

Even as he thanked Charizard for putting in a lot of work, Pikachu hopped onto the ice.

“And now this action packed battle is coming to an end! Did Charizard tire out Typhlosion enough for Pikachu to win this, or has Typhlosion anchored Dan’s Indigo hopes like his Mega Ampharos did yesterday?!” The announcer asked as he and Pikachu wasted no time while Typhlosion was out of juice

“Thunderbolt!”

This time Typhlosion wasn’t able to block it with Flamethrower, and the Thunderbolt hit home as Typhlosion endured it, slowly getting energy back from using Blast Burn, but Pikachu kept on the damage.

“Flare Blitz!”

And did so until Typhlosion had the energy to burst into flames, blocking the Thunderbolt and freeing Typhlosion, who didn’t then charge at Pikachu. The two were still standing, glaring at each other across the ice, his eyes looking for anything to help Pikachu get around Typhlosion’s raw power. There was water, but Dan was probably planning for that so trying to just break the ice would go poorly. Though ice…

“Thunderbolt!”

“Flamethrower!”

The two attacks collided once more, Flamethrower pushing Thunderbolt back before the two attacks detonated, shattering some ice nearby and sending some ice fragments flying into the air. No, too small…

“Use Iron Tail to fire those ice bits and break some more!”

“That’s not going to work, Flamethrower!”

Pikachu batted the ice chunks Typhlosion’s way, the shards of ice quickly melted by Flamethrower as Pikachu spun to land near a larger ice rock and shattered it with Iron Tail, leaving many larger chunks of ice.

“Now, use the ice chunks as skates!”

Pikachu didn’t land quite that gracefully, but he did land, and didn’t fall on his face, on four somewhat large chunks of ice, one for each foot. His oldest buddy got what he was going to go for next, placing his tail against the ice like a spring to give some starting speed, but that wasn’t all.

“Now use Thunderbolt to speed right at Typhlosion!”

It was visibly awkward for Pikachu to fire Thunderbolt facing away from him, but it was done and Pikachu was rocketed towards the tiring Typhlosion, moving like a skating rocket.

“Volt Tackle!”

Pikachu was engulfed in electricity next, still propelled with the force from Volt Tackle and moving faster and faster and faster and faster. Typhlosion’s flames flared up as Dan looked like he knew this moment was crucial.

“This is going to win either of us this match, so let’s give it our all. Blast Burn!”

As Typhlosion turned red, he had to agree with Dan. These next few seconds would decide the match, and he had to decide what to do about Blast Burn, and he had one idea.

“Pikachu, turn that Volt Tackle into Counter-Shield!”

Pikachu did so by spinning, using his tail to turn the straightforward charge into a spin like a top, sending tendrils of electricity flying outward like something of a miniature electric hurricane on a weather map. The tendrils slashed ice apart around Pikachu as Blast Burn was fired, Pikachu’s attack moving a bit slower than prior to the conversion into a impromptu Counter Shield as the Blast Burn connected. And then there was only fire and melting ice for all anyone could see.

“Folks, the result of this battle is going to be determined in the next minute or less! Does Pikachu push through the fiery inferno of Blast Burn to strike the defenseless Typhlosion, or does the fire overpower Volt Tackle and we see some crispy Pikachu!? We’ll find out soon enough folks!”

The ref was watching the fire like a hawk, and both trainers were gripping their hands so tighty their knuckles were turning pale white. Typhlosion, body steaming and without any juice in its tank, was watching the fire just as intensely, and every second felt like it lasted an hour. The fire flickered, a flash of yellow…

“Piiiikaaa!”

And out of the flames emerged Pikachu, still clad in Volt Tackle but without skates, still running towards Typhlosion. His fur was scorched and black, bits of fire were trailing at the tip of his tail from a slight bit of ignited fur, and Pikachu was probably going to be at risk of falling to the motion of a Magikarp’s Splash attack when the recoil was over, but Pikachu was still in this. Typhlosion’s eyes widened as it tried to start its flames again, smoke coming out like a malfunctioning car instead, before Pikachu landed the solid Volt Tackle right dead center on Typhlosion.

The Fire-type was sent flying, skidding across the ice away from the two massive Blast Burn gouges in the ice before coming to a stop. Pikachu tottered, wincing and struggling to stand, but he was standing. Unlike Typhlosion.

“Typhlosion is unable to battle! The victory goes to Ash Ketchum!” the ref declared, moments before Pikachu slumped over in exhaustion. An act that he quickly mirrored.

That… was close.

"Typhlosion, return." Dan said after a moment to process the loss. "You were great. We all were. Guess we just weren't great enough to beat the guy who beat Sabrina."

While Dan mused that fact aloud he had gone to get Pikachu, picking up his pal in his arms to carry him to the Pokémon Center and the post healing party. Though he did have one point to make first.

"Actually, I first used a Z-Move against Sabrina and she couldn’t stop it so you did better than her," he told Dan, who looked surprised to hear it but did perk up a bit.

"Huh, that does make me feel a bit better. Still wish I won but, thanks."

"Don't mention it."

“Oh, excellent, good timing all. I thought I might ask you four for a big favor, though only after the Indigo League is done for the year.”

It was a bit after the battle had been won. They’d cheered together, Iris and Anabel had each given him kisses on the cheek, and Misty had smiled and said ‘You, me, the Lapras Lazuli’.

He’d assume that was a place you could go and not some Crystal Onix thing, but Professor Oak first.

(Oh, Koga had in fact beaten Ritchie and Red won against Neesha from Mewtwo’s island, so they were going to face off tomorrow, and he intended to be the one to face the winner. Yellow had also been happy to hear about everything.)

"Sure Professor, what is it?" He asked, having heard from Pikachu a likely identity for this request, and the time was about right too.

"You see Ash, out on Valencia Island in the Orange Archipelago is the lab of an associate of mine named Professor Ivy. She and my cousin study similar topics with the main difference being...well that is not important really. What is important is that she recently came across an unusual set of items that are more in my field of research than hers and would like some help in transferring them. Mail service in the Orange Islands is a bit faulty, so I was wondering if you four could take a trip out there to pick them up for us.”

‘I’d be fine with that.’ Anabel was the first to agree, partially because he was thrown a bit for a loop. Two items? On his shoulder Pikachu had a twitch, as if he only just remembered that detail.

“Chu….” ‘I was kind of tired, must have slipped my mind.’

“I have no issue.” Iris seconded.

“Oh that sounds nice. A tropical island trip.” Misty thirded.

“I’m in, Professor!”

With his fourthing (?) Professor Oak nodded in appreciation.

“Thank you all. I had asked Gary to do it but he had prior arrangements. Professor Ivy has agreed to buy tickets for you four and will email them to me. I’m pretty sure Anabel could probably have teleported you all over there and spared her the expense but…well there isn’t a good way to bring it up let’s just put it that way.”

The five of them, Pikachu and girls and himself, exchanged a look at that slight warning.

“The tickets will have a fixed time for departure but they will be good for returning you to Vermillion City via a Seagallop Highspeed Ferry from any port in the Orange Islands. You can return right after you get the packages, or you could take some time to see the islands. The islands have their own little league of sorts: you only need four badges to challenge the Head Gym leader of the island in a league match so it would not take that long. I can wait a month or two, as can Johto or Kalos wherever you might wish to go.” Professor Oak finished explaining.

“Oh, that’s rather nice. I battled a few trainers from the Orange Islands at the qualifier yesterday and maybe I’ll see some of them again.” Misty wondered aloud, and he guessed it was probably more about Marina than Tad. They nodded in agreement to spending some time in the Orange Islands.

“Good. Now, before it slips my mind I figured I might as well show you all what Professor Ivy looks like. She can be a bit busy and often without her trademark Professor white coat, so people can miss her.” Professor Oak dug into his jacket for a screen and began fiddling with it to pull up an image.

“Trademark?” Iris questioned as the Professor idly nodded.

“It’s a bit of a term misuse, but the general idea is that the specific type of white coat that all my fellow Professors wear is a specific type of jacket created specifically for Professors that cannot be recreated by anyone and… oh, here’s Philena. I’ll leave the legalese for never and show you the lady you need to find.”

Okay, that would be good for the others as they had never seen Professor Ivy before, he had so he’d know exactly what to expect and…

Wow!

He had to blink twice, shaking his head to try and shake off the impression. Just, what just happened.

He had seen Professor Ivy before. He’d seen her in that same swimsuit, and his mind had been more on her quite tame Gyarados. Now…

Well, the Gyarados was in the photo, but he couldn’t get his eyes to focus on that. No, his eyes couldn’t seem to leave her at all. Not Professor Ivy’s swimsuit, and how it had some parts of it cut out if its side that showed off several areas of smooth stomach. Not the top, which showed as much as Misty’s swimsuits often did and was probably a bit larger and had that same necklace that went down into them. Not her long hair, which was longer than usual and made him think to Anabel’s teasing about him and long hair. Not anything!

Was…was this what it was like to be Brock!? Was this (part of the reason) Brock had really went for Professor Ivy? Because if it was…well he and the original timeline Misty had loved Brock, they all loved Brock, but they did joke about his ‘brocking’ a lot. He and Misty had made a few jokes about Brock and his ‘being trained’ by Professor Ivy on Lapras’s back to Tracey’s confusion. If this was even part of what it was like for Brock…he owed the guy an apology for making fun of it. It was just something that his mind at age # couldn’t even comprehend!

…

Meanwhile in Pewter, an engaged and happy Brock, sipping a ladle of soup for taste testing, felt like someone had just apologized to him for something. He shrugged it off, returning to his soup duties as his newest Pokémon went “Croa, Croa, Croa,” to the beat of the bubbling soup.

...

He got an elbow to his side and he snapped out of it, which was followed by laughter.

A hearty chuckle from Professor Oak, an amused eye roll from Misty who had snapped him out of it with her elbow, a mischievous look from Pikachu, a knowing smile from Anabel, and Iris…

“Oh, I guess she must be pretty attractive to you, Ash.”

Which got more laughter and his blushing was now certainly not from a complete understanding of Brock now.

“I’m sorry it’s just… just… I could have sworn there was a photo of her at the lab that I saw that didn’t do this to me!” he quickly fibbed. Fortunately, the Professor idly nodded.

“Oh yeah, we do have that group photo don’t we? Well you’d have probably seen that when you were younger and less aware of girls Ash, so it is perfectly normal. I’d warn you not to do anything stupid but you’re beyond such concerns despite one unexpected surprise. Anyway, Gary, Daisy, and I are meeting up at a nice restaurant for an overdue family meal on Gary’s league card, so enjoy the rest of the day!”

And with that the old man was off, without leaving any hint of the other half of the Brock and Ivy problem, like what had even happened with them. Of course that mystery, joining what happened to Brock’s facial hair and his own puberty, could wait as he had to do something immediately.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized quickly as Misty laughed.

“Oh Ash, relax, it’s no big deal. That woman was hot and I’m not going to beat you over the head for it. Like when we go over there I hope you don’t follow her boobs around like a lost child or something, because then we’ll be having a long discussion, but if you need to remember to look up once or twice that’s no problem.”

“I’ll… try not to do that,” he promised.

“If Ash was following her around, would it not be him following her butt like a lost child?” Iris adjusted the idiom as he blushed and face palmed simultaneously and Misty, Pikachu, and Anabel giggled, also at the exact moment of said facepalm.

‘Don’t do that either.’ Anabel teasingly told him.

“I thought you…” He wasn’t sure how to say ‘would take it badly’, but she did tend to yank girls back home if they were too interested in him at dances, so why wasn’t this a problem?

“Do you remember the last dance where that plump girl from Pallet tried to dance with you. The one with the really big…”

“Hosta… sort of.” Ash named her, but it took him a minute to remember the exact thing Misty was bringing up. Hosta had been wearing a dress, the color of which he didn’t remember, but he did think it was cut in a way to emphasize Hosta’s…

“Yeah, you were surprised when she pulled you from a dance with your mom, and she made sure you saw her dress’s cut and asked you to dance. You were all polite and yourself about it, just initially stunned. With how she moved in it, it would have been hard for you not to notice what she was doing. What matters is that your dance afterwards was platonic and your eyes were not constantly looking down,” Misty asserted. “Brief distraction isn’t a problem, it’s if you keep being distracted that would bug me.”

“That sounds like jealousy,” Iris pointed out as Misty huffed.

“That was me being annoyed at her, not me being angry at Ash for being surprised by large rural produce. Now Ash, let’s figure out what to wear for our night out. I’ll go first, tell me which looks best on me, ‘k?”

And with a wink Misty darted off to the girl’s room.

“I’m confused,” Ash admitted to that entire sentence.

‘Basically she’s not angry at you but she remembers when any girl tries to get your attention that she doesn’t approve of,’ Anabel explained to him.

“And then she is angry at them, though unless Professor Ivy tries to seduce you she will probably not be angry at her for what her photo did,” Iris elaborated.

“And her wanting to do a fashion show off with me is…”

‘A combination of teasing you, having fun herself, legit necessity, and probably a bit of her reminding you that you consider her hot.’

“I don’t need to remember that,” he said without thinking.

“I’m still going to remind you!” Misty shouted in good nature from the other side of the door.

…

"Mom, are you sure about this?"

"Oh, hush, honey. If my son's about to head for a dance date at a nightclub, he needs to look the part."

While Pikachu was laughing from the bed at the scene, the trainer could do nothing but stand still as his mother continued to deliver the 'final touch-ups', which mostly meant trying to comb his wild hair before heading out.

For better or worse, Delia had found his Item Capsule where he stacked his wardrobe, inside of which was stored plenty of the clothes the girls had bought for him during the Princess Day. Who'd have guessed it'd come in handy, beyond the swimsuits for the pool day?

"Alright, you're done. Now take a look and admire yourself."

He turned to the mirror. The outfit Delia had picked for him was pretty simple: a black leather jacket with a silver lining on the shoulders and across the arms, which wouldn't seem off place on a biker, and the open zipper revealed a dark blue shirt underneath. He also wore black pants and shoes to match, and his belt sported a golden buckle with the face of a Raikou surrounded by two lightning bolts.

He was no fashion expert, but he couldn't say he didn't like it.

"Well, it's pretty comfy and I guess it looks nice," Ash said. "That should be enough, right?"

"Oh, of course! And the girls are gonna gush when they see how handsome you look!"

That was perhaps the most important part. He wanted to look good, so as to avoid making his girl look bad. His girl, how weird did that sound. After thanking his mom for her help, and taking a deep breath, he exited his room, right on time to see Misty exit hers, followed by Iris and Anabel.

For a moment, his mind had to pause to record the image he had in front of him. Misty was wearing a black dress whose skirt, despite being longer than her usual shorts, would highlight her hips nicely, and gave a nice view of her long legs. It also bared her shoulders and back, and between her breasts was a thin yet provocative gap, going down towards a belt with silver lines around her narrow waist. Her high-heeled, knee high boots also gave her a couple extra inches of height, putting her almost at his eye contact level.

She'd also let her hair down, and only then did he take notice of how much she'd been growing it in the past few months. That was just another plus for him. It was weird how this outfit covered more, yet somehow enticed him as much, if not moreso, than the black bikini she wore during the pool day.

"Wow…" was all he could say when he caught his breath back. "You look… amazing, Misty."

"Thank you, you look pretty handsome yourself," she said, taking a look at him with a slight blush. He took notice of Anabel and Iris' own stares, which seemingly approved too. "So… are we both ready to go?"

"Sure." He offered his arm coyly, and she hesitated to accept it. She looked at Iris and Anabel, who simply smiled at one another and then to them.

'Go ahead, don't be afraid,' said Anabel.

"Go and have fun, both of you," Iris added. "Today, you two celebrate the victory."

Misty then grabbed his arm and they exited the cabin. The day was coming to an end and it seemed like the perfect hour for some dancing at a nightclub. Then again, it wasn't like they hadn't done it before, but it sounded much better to be able to do it just for fun, instead of just an excuse to escape being tug-o-war for other girls.

Today, he wanted to enjoy some dancing with a girl he genuinely liked.

…

While Misty wasn't a showoff, walking across the street as she held onto Ash's arm gave her a rush of satisfaction, when she noticed people giving them glances. Some curious, others envious, but all of them saying the same. Everyone saw them as a couple.

'Can we really call ourselves that way? I mean, Anabel and Iris are in this too. Though… well, I guess we are a couple right now, technically."

Yes, they were. A couple, a pair of teenagers going out on a date because they were attracted to each other. It seemed ironic that less than a year before she said something like "He's a boy and he's my friend, but not my boyfriend". Ash was still a boy, and she didn't have the courage to call him her boyfriend. But surely enough, they weren't just friends anymore.

In hindsight, she probably should thank that schoolgirl at the Pokémon Tech for suggesting it. She may not have even entertained the idea of having Ash for a boyfriend, or maybe not as soon.

'Why is it so hard? I already told him that I love him, and he clearly returns my feelings.'

She wouldn't say it upfront, lest the others could take it the wrong way, but she was a little bit envious of Iris and Anabel's boldness. After Ash told her about his shared dream with Belladonna, she realized she was more worried about how others would see them, rather than the relationship itself.

Anabel and Iris had no issues with sharing Ash with her, and to be honest neither did she. They were nice girls, and the fact Ash was willing to share his affection with all of them equally, with no favorites whatsoever, was something that she honestly found charming and made her love him even more.

Of course, she was aware of the possible downsides of such a relationship. Such as the fact that Ash only had two arms, and they were three (and with that Serena girl, it could go up to four). On the physical level they'd have to sort out agreements on who would take turns when. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it seemed like a small detail, in comparison to all the good things they had.

They all had different personalities, interests and goals, yet somehow their shared love for Ash only brought them closer instead of tearing them apart. That was an undeniable fact.

"So… which way do we go?"

Ash's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. They'd already reached the nightclub area, but still needed to pick one. She looked around, spotting one with a rather flashy blue neon board shaped like a Lapras, and the letters "LAPIS LAZULI" in a cursive style, like waves to surf on.

"That’s the place I told you about, what do you think?"

He nodded and they both headed to it. Ash presented his Pokédex for ID and the bouncer let them in after inspecting them with a metal detector. After a long corridor, they came to a place that looked just like one would expect from a nightclub: the dance floor, the strobe lights, a bar to order food and drink, and a DJ booth mixing music. There was even a stage for live bands, though it was empty tonight.

"So… do we have a drink first, or do we head straight for the dance?"

Right then, the place's lighting changed to a deep blue tone, giving her a strange feeling as if she was underwater. Suddenly, she felt like she was in her element, much bolder and more determined. Like she could do anything and forget anything that worried her.

"Let's hit the dance floor. You know how to do it, right?"

"Er… yeah, though I may need some help," he said as he scratched the back of his neck. Gosh, he looked so adorable doing that.

"Don't worry, leave it all to me." She winked at him, and dragged him to the dance floor. While the place wasn't packing that night, there were plenty of people, so they had to find a spot for themselves.

Right then, a song that sounded familiar to her, called "Butterfree Kiss", began to play. It wasn't too fast, but not too slow either. It had the perfect rhythm to start their dance night.

…

After a bout of dancing on the dancefloor the two of them took a break and a booth to get a bite to eat and a drink. Though the latter was a bit of an effort to find something to drink despite a vast amount of options.

“...Do they have anything that isn’t alcoholic?” Ash complained as she shrugged.

“You probably can order water. I mean that’ll suck, but it won’t get you kicked out of the league.”

She wasn’t entirely sure if that was a punishment for underage drinking by league participants, but why take that chance?

“Holey moley, that much for a mozzarella stick?!”

She giggled at his surprise. Yes, they were expensive, but he wasn’t paying for it. The league was, so bring on the mozzarella sticks that cost two shirts and a pack of socks per plate. She was sure that her sisters would consider a guy talking about costs on a date to be ‘bad form’, but she was seeing the prices too. She had a few four letter words to describe the expense of the finger food.

“And we don’t have to pay for it, so go nuts,” she assured him, and he only then seemed to remember that he wasn’t paying for it. He scratched the back of his head nervously.

“You know, I think it’s a date thing to share a plate.”

“How big are the plates?” she asked as he remembered the details about their appetites, and the romantic trope was dropped.

“Right idea, wrong portion size.” She put it gently after a waitress took their order for two plates. “Though picture this if you will Ash: there’s one last stick of mozzarella on the plate, and the two of us split it. There’s that one connecting tissue of cheese…”

“And then we kiss based on the cheese… I won’t lie, that sounds romantic but when I think about it, it is kind of silly sounding.” Ash realized how some things were better in the moment than in description. Though before she could continue this train…

“If you can’t see how that’s fun boy, you should step aside and let a man show this lady a good time.”

Some bozo just propped his elbow on the table between them, grinning at her with a pair of very white teeth even as his gaze went below her face, his grin getting bigger with every bit his gaze lowered.

“Um, excuse you?” she snarked irritably as he grinned.

“No, excuse you for looking so fine this evening.”

The one who put himself in between the two of them was a blond man, a few years older than her, with a goatee and a fancy suit that had a cut for showing off some muscle on his chest.

“Yeah, and I’m on a date.” She gave a pointed look past him to Ash, which didn’t make the guy back down.

“Oh, him. Yeah, I guess he’s not the worst person you could be with, but what about someone who doesn’t whine about the cost of a lady’s meal?”

She discreetly gave Ash a wave that she’d handle it. The guy wasn’t really looking at him anyway, and it was probably a trap to get Ash to say ‘I wasn’t whining!’ The trap wouldn’t get her to go off with the prick, but she’d spare Ash a pitfall being set up to trip him up.

“Well, given how much they cost I can’t blame him. Of course, one of the top four ranking trainers doesn’t have to worry about costs,” she snarked while giving the guy a bit of a warning. Did he really want to interrupt the date of someone who had outlasted over a thousand other trainers?

“Oh, that’s cute, but does he have wealth? Especially someone whose wealth is sponsoring the event that makes the bozo behind me worth a pretty girl’s attention?”

Apparently he did.

The man, still blocking her view of Ash, patted himself on the chest with a smug grin, seemingly in a desire to make a clear ‘beat’ when his hand struck his chest.

“I’m a very rich man, a pinnacle of success. And unlike with him it won’t go away in an instant if he loses tomorrow. Why not spend some quality time with success?”

“I’m celebrating success right now, and right now that means waiting on mozzarella sticks.”

“If you want a real snack, I can help you with that. Something long and filled with gooey…”

“Sounds good enough to bite in half.” She interrupted his interesting metaphor as he looked like he finally got the message. He wasn’t the only one who could set a verbal trap. Put off, he abruptly left the two of them alone, probably going off to find some other girl to try and get some action with. Ash’s expression was one of relief and general annoyance.

“That guy was a jerk.”

“Your mom’s not here, call him an ass.” She told him as he poked to a space above his shoulder, as if forgetting Pikachu wasn’t with them with the idea that ‘he might tell her’, but realized he was Pikachu-less and blushed.

“So… er… mind if I confess something?” Ash asked as she nodded, curious what he’d say. “Well, it's more of a question really, but the fact that him coming onto you annoyed me…that isn’t hypocritical when you don’t get that annoyed when Anabel or Iris…”

“I appreciate your concern about being hypocritical, or some sort of stupid masculine double standards, but it’s totally different. That guy was butting in, and I’m amazed he didn’t talk more about his mozzarella stick than he did about his wealth. Make of that what you will…”

The fried snacks were paying for themselves with these jokes.

“Though more seriously, there is a difference. That guy was butting in and being a jerk, and he’d have been as bad if he was a girl doing it to you. It would only be hypocritical if I wanted some time with someone else and you were getting huffy about it. You wanting to whistle for Charizard and taking the guy outside is not you being hypocritical.”

Ash seemed to appreciate the assurance as she playfully pointed at him.

“Trust me, if you ever start acting like an ass we’ll tell you.”

Ash smiled in relief as a waitress brought them their plates of snacks and left the two of them be.

“The guy was trying to… what’s the right word…?” Ash was looking for the right way to phrase it as he took a bite of a mozzarella stick without any lingering freudian concerns.

“‘Get laid’, ‘score’, or otherwise ‘trying to get some’? Yep, he was probably after that.” She spun a stick in her fingers before dipping it in some sauce.

He blushed, possibly not even from how she dipped the stick in the sauce.

“I mean I’m no expert or anything, not at all, but I don’t think that’s how you do it. At all…I think.” He stammered as she laughed.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a bit to drink first or was just stupid. Probably both. And yes, that was not the right way to do it. Don’t ask me how…I honestly don’t know.” She said the last part a lot more quietly.

“What if someone just asked?” Ash said quietly as well before dipping a stick. She blushed.

“... I mean, are you asking that….” She blushed, feeling a sudden chill run through her entire body, though not because of fear of not wanting to do it…

He dropped the stick in his sauce in surprise.

“No! I mean not that you aren’t hot or sexy or that I’d never ask that, but I… er… well, not sure I’d want to do it at a nightclub. Where’d you even go? Back at the cabin!?” Ash stammered quickly.

“Yeah, and the place has your mom in it!” She quickly added.

“Same with home….” He continued as the two of them, both blushing, struggled to look each other in the eye.

“... But just asking… yeah, that is better than what that jerkoff was doing. Way better.” She admitted quietly, though not so quietly that he didn’t hear her.

“... Oh, that’s nice….” Ash appreciated the comment, even as he still didn’t seem willing to look her in the eye.

“...Yeah, certainly better than me…asking you to see your mozzarella stick.” She accidentally slipped out.

Ash held up one of his remaining snacks and she laughed.

“Ash, that was a dumb entendre I shouldn’t have said aloud,” she clarified. “Though if you were trying to be funny, actually please keep it up. Tell me your terrible lines of choice.”

“Wouldn’t that mean I have good ones?” Ash put the mozzarella stick down gently as she nervously smiled.

“Try. Let’s… try to laugh ourselves back to dancing shape. I think awkward dances attract his kind.”

Ash quickly nodded, not wanting more like that guy, or probably the female equivalent.

“Oh I get it. Something like that….err…. breaks the ice. Yeah… um… er… oh! I think one of the girls back home tried a line like this once at a dance party. She said something about ‘showing me her Ultra Balls’. Misty, want me to show me yours?” Ash said quickly, like he was sure it was going to backfire. She shook her head in good humor.

“Yeah, that is bad. Maybe I don’t need to yank them off you at parties if that is their best line, though I’m probably still going to do it. Though on the topic of balls…have you always been carrying eight around?”

“I mean trainers only can…oh wait, that’s a dumb entendre.” Ash caught on after a few seconds.

“Yes, it is very dumb.”

“I think I have a dumber one. Back a few years ago I think one of the guys at my school made one about Gary’s sister and her ‘fine Moonstones.’ I didn’t get it, but Gary did threaten to beat him up for it so I think it’s one.”

“It is, and it is dumb. Since you probably don’t get it, that’s a butt reference.” She confirmed and clarified.

“Oh, so if I said you had ‘fine Moon stones’....” Ash blushed as he said it, but with a lot less awkwardness.

“It would be dumb, yes I do have ‘fine pair’, and you got any original ones?” She felt like one more good dumb joke would get the two of them back to shape for another round of uninterrupted dancing.

Ash struggled for a minute, trying to think of a terrible line to say. She smiled.

“We’re having fun here Ash, live a little. I can help you live a lot if you want.”

“Misty, I think that was a good entendre,” he pointed out as she blushed. Oh yeah, it was. “Oh, I think I’ve got one. Don’t you know Misty, I’m super-effective.’”

And she laughed at that one, which he joined in after two seconds.

“Oh Ash, that was bad.”

“Good.”

“Let’s get back to dancing now before we say any more good ones.”

“Agreed.”

…

He didn’t recognize the song, but that wasn’t that weird and it was a good tune to dance to. A nice and energizing music that was a few ticks faster and more energized than the stuff that would play at home.

The two of them danced, keeping in step with the music and with the crowd at large. Though it seemed that every minute that the night went on the tasks of staying in step with the crowd became just a bit harder, presumably because of alcohol. One pair of dancers behind Misty, for example, were starting to move erratically and wildly, and he had to pull Misty closer so she didn’t get slapped in the back of the head by them.

“Pulling me out of the way and pulling me closer, clever boy.” Misty almost purred at him as the two of them adjusted to a dance with very little space between themselves. He blushed.

“Well, more the first than the second…”

“But I’m sure you’re liking it.” Misty grinned as he blushed more.

“Well….”

She grinned, their faces quite close together as the dance continued, the many Pallet parties and the night with Anabel meaning that the two of them were quite good at not stepping on the other even this close.

The music changed once more, and it was to a song that he had heard before, though not one he could name.

“Hey, isn’t this one of those songs from that dead guy?” Misty wondered, picking up on how the music was of a different time and era.

“Yeah, my mom and grandmother both liked his songs a lot.” He recalled a story or two from his mom about them from years ago. It was foggy, but something about a musical king who was rather humble about how he wasn’t really the best singer and he just got lucky for some reason, and he apparently died on a toilet and was born poor or something. “He had this one dance move that I used to mimic as a kid that made my mom laugh.”

“Oh really, he danced? I don’t remember hearing about that, but my sisters didn’t like his music so I never saw much of the guy beyond the jokes and stuff. Why don’t you show me?” Misty grinned. So he did without thinking.

And Misty promptly laughed as he felt all the blood rush out of his face.

“Oh my, Ash…”

“I’m so sorry Misty!” That was cute when a little kid mimicked it.

“Oh yeah, all those jokes now make sense. He did do something like that…” Misty laughed with a slight blush to her face. “Oh Ash, I know you really like this dress…”

They stopped dancing for a bit as Misty gestured around them. Several of the other couples on the floor, even some who didn’t seem drunk, were also doing the musical king’s ‘distinctive dance move’.

“Also you aren’t doing it any more sillily…sillyly….you know what I’m trying to say, than anyone else. So don’t sweat it, though if you are going to match up for the times that we press up against you give a girl a warning okay?”

And with that they resumed a dance that was not a tribute act, and he was laughing nervously.

“Well, er…I’m not sure if that’s really a fair trade… also, I wouldn’t even know how many times it would have to be ‘even’...” He nervously chuckled as Misty grinned.

“Nah, we’re probably even. Muscles and all.”

And they had a more relaxed and less awkward dancing streak of songs, and came to a pretty high-energy one that led to a high speed, high energy dance that was a constant blur of motion. They swerved and ducked, hopped and spun, an intense test of their ability to not step on each other's toes or get bumped into by any of those around them, and a test the two of them passed.

“Alright folks, take a breather with a slow tune, but don’t get too comfortable. Next lineup of songs is meant for three people, so partners find a third and get in the spirit of things!” The D.J declared.

“Oh, that’s different.”

“Yeah, I wonder how you dance like that.” Misty agreed, though in a few seconds the fact that the dancing style had shifted registered to the two of them. And then they noticed that there were many with their eyes on them now.

“A hot thing like yourself needs more than one admirer, let me join in with you.” One young guy in something formalish and casualish at the same time, darted up to them, though he only talked to Misty and his eyes never reached her face.

“Oh wow, you’re the one to beat that fat freak, and you’re all the way in the top four. Let me reward you with a dance, hot stuff.” Meanwhile a lady in a red dress, probably a bit younger than Jessie but with a very un-Jessie haircut, had approached him, and she was using her own eyes to try to get his gaze to look down. Even with the distraction that caused him, he could tell she was hoping to keep him from looking at Misty.

“Wow! I’ve seen all your matches and I can’t believe you two are here tonight! Are you guys together! It would be amazing if you’d dance with me!” A third person, a girl about their age in a golden and black dress with long black gloves and stockings, asked both of them. “It would make my night like you wouldn’t believe, and I’ll try to make it as great for you two as I can, if you’d let me.”

“I’d like to dance with you two…is it alright if I do?” A guy around their age, whose clothes looked a bit more casual than the others, nervously asked. “It would…it would be really fun for us all, maybe.”

“Can we…talk it out first?” he quickly said, taking the lead as he felt like Misty gave him a quick nod of approval for doing so.

“Sure!”

“S…sure…”

“Take all the time you need er… hot redhead.”

“...A young man with patience, of course.”

And they were able to make it towards the entrance, though not out of it but into a somewhat quiet corner.

“Misty, what do we do?” he quickly asked.

“I don’t know…. I didn’t hear anything about a triple dance…but I’m not ready to call it quits tonight yet. Though if we don’t get a third…”

“Think we can call Anabel? I’d call Iris but…” Iris and a nightclub would not mix. At all.

Misty shook her head.

“I think she’d be in bed right now. Same with Iris. Ergh… maybe those two Bisexuals. That guy didn’t look at my face once and that… no.”

He got the impression that Misty just avoided saying a very bad word for the woman who probably wanted to distract him from Misty the way that the guy now and before wanted Misty to ignore him. Perhaps even a long series of negative insults.

“You sure you aren’t reading into it a bit much on those other guys?” He didn’t get the impression that it bothered Misty, though was she sure she wasn’t just reaching there? She shook her head in amusement and a bit of worry about the dance in general.

“Oh trust me Ash, I’m sure. Pretty sure the nicer ones want to impress the both of us, and also impress us if you get the meaning. Still they are the nicer ones about it so…”

“We can probably dance without anything…” he said reasonably.

“Yeah, that’s true, but I'm not sure I want to put those two too badly. They seem genuinely nice about it. You and I can put Miss ‘I like Younger Men’ down all day, or Mr. ‘Mozzarella Stick’ if he’s still conscious and I’d be perfectly fine with it, but those two might actually be hurt if we dance and nothing comes of it.”

There was something he felt like he could gleam from this, though he wasn’t sure what or that this was the time to clarify what Misty was fine with. Though before he could think of something topical to say…

“Eeep!”

He and Misty realized they had accidentally startled someone who was also in the corner.

The girl was about their age, with frizzy green hair of a shade that, while affected by the lighting, felt familiar somehow. She had a large pair of glasses and a dress that, while plainer than Misty’s by a few Princess Day fights, did make her look pretty, working with a height that was pretty tall and a nice looking body that looked faintly familiar. She nervously adjusted her glasses and fidgeted with her bag.

“Oh I’m oh… oh sorry I didn’t see you two here, Ash Ketchum and Misty…oh the famous battlers who I only heard of and saw just recently but did really well and um….” She sputtered as Misty smiled in a way to calm the girl down.

“Oh don’t worry about it. We’re just over here to discuss strategies with dancing and all. Three person dancing is kind of… unexpected is all.”

The girl rapidly nodded her head at a fast, nervous click.

“Oh unexpected, yes, very unexpected. I thought about trying a night out once at the advice of… well it was a lot more noisy than I thought, and crazy, and lively and… oh it’s kind of scary really. “

“Don’t worry, the only scary thing here are the prices.” he joked to her as she jumped.

“I haven’t even tried anything. I’m just… I think some boys here are smitten with me! Oh deary me…”

“Join the club…wait a minute. Have you danced with anyone tonight?” Misty seemed to come up with something, and he thought he got what she was going for.

“No! I mean… I’m too nervous. Silly me, going to a dance club…my brother thought it would be good for me, and I’m just wasting his money being scared…”

“Well, want to have your first dance with the three person dance?” Misty offered as the girl looked stunned. “We can help you have a good time, and you can let us get rid of the vultures and put down the nice ones gently.”

“Su…sure!” She quickly agreed.

“You mind giving us your name?”

“Ren. Ren Daemon.”

…

“I’m not sure how to dance,” Ren admitted as the three of them went to the dance floor.

“Hey, I barely know either, it’s not too hard. Just watch your feet and whatever you do, don’t stomp unless they start a square dance,” Ash assured the girl who didn’t seem to be interested in taking him home later. He’d also covered for them, saying the truth about Ren wanting help to have some fun and him offering it and that satisfied the two people whom she didn’t want to offend. The ones she did…well the one who wanted her alone looked at her and Ren’s chests before stomping off while the lady who wanted Ash alone mused about ‘the gentlemen are always too nice’ before wandering off herself. Good riddance. Now, to dancing.

Their steps were tepid at first, then letting Ren get into a rhythm, taking some extra care to keep their feet back from hers to make it easier for Ren to avoid a misstep. As they moved, slowly with more confidence as the shy girl got into it, she looked the girl over a bit. Perhaps she was just a bit paranoid, but why didn’t the girl seem to be looking at Ash the way others did? Though as the girl’s glasses slid a bit on her nose and she adjusted them with a quick motion of her head, Misty got a glimpse of her eyes. Red eyes, with Z marks briefly seen past her thick glasses.

Perhaps the girl, subconsciously or knowing, guessed she was part of that giant mess of a family tree and was not going to make it worse by adding incest to the entire mess. Regardless it would make for a perfectly calm and safe dance, even if Ash didn’t figure it out himself.

Though if her name was Ren…

“So, how are Katty and Casem?” She gambled asking as Ren’s eyes lit up and their tempo of movement went up a bit.

“Oh they’re great and so happy, not only did they get to see that match of Ash’s but this really nice girl…” Ren stopped as she seemed to connect the dots.

“Oh, you two already know each other?” Ash picked up, holding her right hand and Ren’s left as they moved in their little spot on the floor.

“By…by reputation only. Um, you see…I errr…am keeping an eye on two orphans and er,....” Ren stammered as she took it up to finish.

“And I met them during the Whirl Cup yesterday. I helped them catch their first Pokémon and they talked a lot about you and how you are really nice.” She said the first part to Ash and the second to Ren, who blushed.

“I’m er… not that nice.”

“I don’t see why you wouldn’t be.” Ash said honestly as his almost certainly sister didn’t look him in the eye. Shyness she guessed. What other reason could it be?

Regardless of why she was being shy they danced on for a while until the song changed out for something that wasn’t quite their thing, and Ash asked if Ren would like some food. The girl’s blush came before the sudden sound of a growling stomach, and the three were seated with the girl looking at a menu and being astounded.

“This much?!”

Ash nodded.

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. The league pays for everything. I don’t know if that is actually a good idea or not, but they do. Not sure how they can afford to though.”

Ren closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to remember something.

“The average revenue for a Pokémon League as of a few years ago was…”

And Ren promptly said a math figure that neither of them could properly comprehend, and that was before she then did some sort of estimate for how it had changed in the last few years. When she opened her eyes Ren noticed their shock and blushed.

“Oh I… hope it wasn’t weird or anything. The thing is I used to go to a school that focused on that sort of thing. Too much really, and well that was all I really had to go on for years. This is the first time I’ve seen what a league is like as an event, and not numbers.”

“It wasn’t weird at all, it’s actually kind of interesting. I can’t count that high.” Ash spoke for the both of them.

“You…probably could. You just shouldn’t think about what that number means.” Ren admitted.

“Agreed, what does the league even do with that much money…um I hope I’m not being rude.”

It was the (probably) Bi boy who was interested in dancing, and more, with them, who walked by and sounded generally interested.

“I remember some lessons on that, but they are a few years old and can’t be that interesting…they weren’t to me.” Ren was surprised to hear a third person be that interested in the things she knew.

“I…kind of want to know,” admitted the boy.

“And me too! Sorry to butt in, but I have this thing about money and what it isn’t being used for. I love the leagues but surely they have money left over after the repairs they could use for important things.” And now it was the (probably) Bi girl in yellow and black. Ren blinked.

“Oh, you mean ethics. I had to take a class on anti-ethics. It was terrible.”

“Anti-Ethics? Oh yikes, I thought that was a joke…”

The girl who (probably) wanted to seduce the two of them spoke nearly loud enough at that statement, which was actually that bad, that she almost missed the next song. Almost, but she heard it, and she had a grin. She nudged Ash, which got him to have an idea it looked like.

“The next song is one of Misty’s favorites and a two person dancing song, but if you want to talk about that I can pay for all you guys to have something while me and Misty go out. If that’s not too much trouble.”

“You’d pay these prices for us just like that?” Asked the guy in surprise.

“It’s kind of hypocritical of me to use that money that way…but I think your friend can tell me some really interesting stuff. Is that okay with you um…”

“Ren.” Ren said quickly, sounding surprised about it. But the extras on were going to be disengaged in a way that was rather un-rude, and it went off without a hitch. Orders were made on the league via Ash and the two of them were free as the trio discussed economics with more passion and interest than she or Ash ever could.

“You know, I think I did a good thing there.” Ash said after leaving Ren with the trio to dance the next song while a song they liked came on.

“I presume you are talking about the food and not possibly helping your sister get laid.” She snarked in good nature.

“...Wait, you think so?” He sounded shocked at the suggestion.

Ash had, apparently, not guessed the part about relations. Or thought of that part. Possibly both. She grinned as the song was about to start.

“Let me tell you why…”

And she did after the song was over, as she did want to dance to it. He scratched his head nervously.

“Oh… heh. Honestly that was kind of obvious, but I guess I was worried about making her scared or accidentally making you upset.”

She jokingly put a finger on his nose as the next song started up, another one she’d want to dance to.

“Trust me Ash, if you do something that makes me upset, I’ll let you know. Trust me, I can tell the difference between you trying to figure out if some girl is related to you and checking them out, and that won’t become hard unless you stop focusing on the face and height for your clues. Now, let’s get back to dancing. The night’s still young.”

…

It was late that the two of them stepped out of the club. The party was still going strong, the night was still sort of young, and the music still played.

But he had a battle in the morning, and Misty had known that.

“That was really fun. It was certainly different from the parties in Pallet,” Misty said as they walked away from the strobing lights and tangible sound.

“Certainly more strobe lights. Were those strobe lights?” he asked as Misty laughed.

“Strobe lights, disco lights, they are all just colorful lights right?! Still it was a good time, and something I hadn’t done before. But I’d do it again, what about you?”

“With you, sure. Anything.”

“Anything huh….” Misty had an edge to her voice that was almost teasing, but not quite. Before he could ask what she pulled at his arm and diverted the both of them into an alley and a few steps. The sound of the party dimmed a bit into just some background noise, and the lights of Indigo were a bit more muted. The alleyway was clear of things like dumpsters and it was just the two of them and a few odds and ends.

“Uh yeah… anything,” he blushed, not sure what Misty was going to do. A secluded alley… somehow that felt like it could be a lot of things. She put her hands on his shoulders, a serious look on her face.

“I had time to think….”

“Think about….it?” He asked for clarification, oddly not able to say the exact words. She nodded.

“Yeah, about you and us and what I want it to be. I have an answer.”

“You… you do? What is it?” He blushed as he felt her pulling at him with her hands, and he felt his head lowering a bit. He felt something touch his lips, another pair of lips. Misty’s.

They kissed in the alleyway, right on the lips, for what was about half a minute or so before Misty pulled away.

“Ash, I’d like to be your girlfriend,” she declared. Ash wasn’t sure what was right to do here: nod, say something romantic… so he just bent down and kissed Misty back, also on the lips. That would work right?

When he pulled back both were blushing. She got the message, right?

“I….er…...could probably work on these kisses a bit more,” he admitted.

“So practice with your girlfriend,” she told him, clearly having gotten his intended meaning. And so they did, breaking off the third kiss after their tongues bumped into each other and blocked them from entry. The two of them blinked at each other, then the both of them laughed at what just happened.

“Kalosian kissing is hard,” he admitted as Misty laughed even harder. Then the both of them yawned in sync.

“... Want to get straight home and get some sleep?”

“Yep.”

Today had been a long day, a hard fought day, a rewarding day. They all, after it all, needed a good night's rest.

END CHAPTER

OMAKE (CANON): Motherly Concerns

"Wow Delia, I'd ask if you were serious but I can tell you are. Mother's intuition and all. Hard to replicate that tone of voice when a mom talks about their kid." From the other end of the call and many time zones away, Grace Gabena had been told quite the interesting story.

"I know, I'd have never believed it myself if I hadn't been seeing them around each other for a while, and then the league seems to have made them finally take that one last step." Delia smiled, knowing very well that if she'd been told her son would be in a relationship with multiple girls in a year when he left Pallet Town...she'd have laughed. Her son was kind of oblivious, but apparently travel and adventures in things she didn't like thinking about sometimes could overcome even that, and well... in a massive way.

"Well I certainly didn't think he had it in him. Honestly I expected that he and Serena would have this terrible contest where he didn't know she liked him, she couldn't admit to liking him, and they'd be at it until the heat death of the universe or until I staged an intervention or something. Still, no one's being a nark about are they?" Grace asked.

"Um, a nark?" Delia had no idea what that meant.

"Basically, anyone hear about it and acted stupid." Grace put it bluntly as Delia laughed.

"Oh not at all. Only one other human than me knows about it outside of those three, and that's Professor Oak. He just chuckled to himself and said something about 'hey, it's fine and less illegal than some things I've done so no sweat off my old bones'. Okay not exactly that... but what illegal things has Samuel done?" Delia wondered about the last part somewhat worryingly.

"Eh, probably not murder or one of the other 16 terrible illegal things." Grace waved that worry off, and that was probably right. Whatever Samuel was talking about was probably not murder, it was probably tax evasion or something else harmless. "So I'm not sure if it came by your way yet, but seeing that jerk from camp being thrashed finally got Serena up and going. She's going to try traveling and journeying and stuff once the league is over."

"Oh that's great news!" Delia beamed as Grace nodded.

"Well, maybe not if I tell her that her dream guy's with three other girls...I mean if I was her and I was told that I'd probably wonder if Ash can 'do some addition', but Serena's too romantic for her own good. But eh, who knows really? She's probably not wondering that question yet, she's just wondering what to try to see what she wants to do in life. I swear the girl could use some of Ash's single mindedness."

"You never tried to get Ash to do math." Delia joked, though she was being a bit mean. Ash wasn't that bad...after a while.

"I tried to get Serena to learn how to change engine oil." Grace quipped back. Serena did know how to...but that had been a struggle. Serena whined for hours about how the oil stuck to her fingers.

"That's more than Ash knows how to do." Delia chuckled as Grace suddenly burst out laughing.

"Oh that's hilarious! You know I was kidding earlier when you talked about how much they all eat, but maybe there is some truth to my joke. 'Hello, my name is Serena Gabena. I love Ash, I can cook and I can change tires and do a car's fluid changes because my mom's an unrelenting freak of nature. Can I join you?'" Grace said in a higher pitch voice, trying to mimic Serena as both mothers laughed.

"Oh listen to us, talking about our children's love lives and what ifs all night! Oh, what is wrong with us?" Delia asked, still chuckling.

"Well we are both pretty thirty something singles, so I guess there is that." Grace was only chuckling for the last part, her mirth dying off with each word.

"....Yeah, I guess there is that." Delia sounded tired as she said the last point with a sigh.

"....So Delia, what's it like being alone in your home? If Serena is finally going to leave...well what's it like?" Grace asked almost vulnerably.

"...Well, kind of imagine a mixture of pride at seeing your child grow, and every room having an echo it didn't used to." Delia put it almost poetically as Grace sighed.

"....No more saying I could dress prettier...."

"....No more telling him to get up already...." Delia was surprised how much she felt like her day was missing without that part.

"....No more whining when I say she could use some muscle tone..."

"...Trying to adapt my cooking portions was surprisingly hard..." Delia was already mentally preparing for that when they were out for the Orange Islands. She was not going to have to deal with two straight meals of leftovers after every original meal for a month again.

"...But you know what, she is a better decorator than me at holiday time..." Grace even wondered if she'd bother doing so if Serena was out.

"...I'd say I got used to it, but around when I thought I was...well he came back." Delia was not upset about that turn of events, not at all, but when it came to being ready for it to happen again...

"...you know, let's talk about something more fun. So either about our kids and their love lives or our own..."

"The one that actually exists, please." Delia quipped as Grace made herself grin at first, before getting an authentic one.

"K, the merry madness of your son and my daughter. Well regardless of what, I think Serena needs a nice dose of reality, so mind telling me exactly what you did to give your personal stamp of approval to the whole thing?"

Meanwhile, while out of the house, Serena was getting the sense of something evil being plotted, but she ignored the sense. It was probably nothing.