80Secrets, Confessions and Revelations
1st off, I'm sorry for the lack of updates for this story. I'm really honestly surprised how many of you like this story as I feel that it's my weakest work. But, I will finish this story, though don't expect any consistent updates. I have no schedule for this story; the chapters will be up when they're done. I appreciate your guys support, but truth be told, of the 5 stories I have going on right now, this one is last in line in terms of stories I need to work on. Now then, let's get started.
I don't own Pokemon or any of it's characters besides my own.
Chapter 5: More Reunions
"Where on earth is Ash?" Serena asked herself as she, Gary, Misty, Tracey, May, Dawn, Clemont and Bonnie walked around Shalour City looking for any sign of the raven haired trainer.
"I'm telling you, we should be looking for Leaf. Find her and you find Ash; I guarantee it." Gary said.
"I'm just wondering why he didn't wait to leave with the rest of us?" Tracey asked.
"Maybe he has a crush on Leaf?" Bonnie suggested. The group stopped in their tracks and looked at the young blonde. "What?"
"Bonnie, you do realize you're saying that about Ash, A.K.A the most dense person on the planet?" May said.
"Well, she does have a point. I mean, what other explanations are there?" Dawn asked, defending Bonnie's idea.
"Easy: Ash and Leaf are BFF's and haven't seen each other in six years. So being the impatient person that he is, he ran off to find her." Gary said. Most of the group seemed to except that answer...that is except Bonnie, Dawn and Serena. Although they had seen first hand that Ash was an impatient guy, but something seemed up here. Unknowingly, all three girls thought that perhaps there was something more to Ash and Leaf's relationship that went beyond just being friends and that was a thought that Serena did not like to think about.
Speaking of Ash, he was at a hot dog stand getting he and Leaf some hot dogs and also making sure to grab some ketchup packets for Pikachu. The vender gave him the dogs and Ash gave him some money for them. He walked back over to a nearby bench where he saw Pikachu in Leaf's lap and the girl in question was gently petting Pikachu's head and rubbing both his back and tail. Leaf's touch made the electric type coo quite a bit.
"Excuse me miss, but I believe you ordered this hot dog." Ash said, in a butler-like voice. Leaf looked up to Ash and took the hot dog from him.
"Thanks, Ash." Leaf said.
"You're welcome. And of course, I didn't forget you Pikachu." Ash said as he gave Pikachu one of the packets.
'Pika-ka Pikapi.'
"You're welcome, buddy." Ash said as Pikachu ripped opened the packet and started sucking on it.
"Why did you give him ketchup?" Leaf asked.
"For some reason, he really likes it. I have no idea why, but I give some to him every once in a while as a treat." Ash explained.
"That's weird." the brunette said.
"Yeah, it is." Ash turned towards his starter. "No offense, buddy." Pikachu just turned his back away from the two and continued sucking on the ketchup packet. "Anyway, how have you been, Leaf?"
"I've been well. I've traveled all 5 regions and I even won a Pokemon League; the Ever Grande Conference in Hoenn. I won that last year."
"Congratulations, Leaf." Ash said. "How'd you fare against their Elite 4?"
"I was able to beat 3 of them and truth be told, it was kind of easier than I thought it would be, but them Drake destroyed me." she said.
"Yeah, I know that feeling." he said back. Leaf shot him a confused look. "When I was traveling around Hoenn, my friends and I met Drake. He actually challenged me to a battle and I got beat pretty badly, but even though I lost that battle, I became a better trainer and a better person as a result from it."
"You got to battle him without winning the Ever Grande Conference? Ash, you're so lucky; I only wish I was there to see it."
"Yeah, but it's not your fault tour family had to move when they did. I just wished you had come back when we would get our 1st Pokemon."
"Umm...Ash, I did come back."
"Say what?"
"Yeah, my dad drove me back to Pallet to get my starter. I was expecting to see you, but I only saw Gary and some other guy."
Ash just sighed annoyingly. "I overslept." he admitted. Leaf giggled a bit.
"That's typical of you." she said.
"Can we please change the topic?" he asked, a bit irritated at Leaf's antics.
"Well...we could talk about the elephant in the room." she said. Ash looked to her to ask what she meant and noticed she was blushing.
"You mean about us?" Leaf nodded. "I..." Ash wasn't sure how to start the conversation.
"Look, if you're already seeing someone, just say it alright. I don't want to play games like this." she said. Ash could see tears starting to come into her beautiful eyes.
"I'm not with anyone, romantically speaking." he revealed, surprising Leaf.
"Really? I would've thought that someone has great and handsome as you are would have girls lined up, wanting to date him." What Leaf said made Ash blush.
"Well...I don't know about the handsome part, but yeah, I'm single right now. Heck, I haven't even been on a date since I started my journey. (A/N Remember, the 'Date' episode of XY hasn't happened in this continuity yet.)
"OK, I find it hard to believe that there isn't a single girl, besides me, that isn't interested in you." she said.
"Well...there have been." he hesistantly said.
"But..."
"But I've been pretending to be dense."
Leaf's eyebrows both raised as far as they could. "Why? If you thought that I would be upset when we would meet again that you had a girlfriend, I wouldn't."
"You wouldn't be hurt?"
"Perhaps a little, but I would be OK with it. Truth be told, I've been in a couple of relationships since we last saw each other." she admitted.
"Oh." Ash said, slightly disappointed.
Leaf caught the tone in Ash's voice. "But I'm not in one now! I always thought you were in one."
"Well, I wasn't." he said, feeling slightly better at what Leaf said.
"Let's get back to you. What other reasons are there for you pretending to be dense?" she asked.
Ash just shrugged his shoulders. "I just didn't have any interest in any of them, romantically."
"How many is them?"
"Well, 1st is Misty Waterflower."
"Cerulean's gym leader?"
"Yeah. I met her on my 1st day as a trainer. We traveled together around Kanto, Johto and The Orange Islands. I think she started having a crush on me about halfway through our Orange Islands journey and it became obvious near the end of our Johto journey. Eventually, she had to take over Cerulean Gym, so we separated. Then there were two co-ordinators: May Maple and Dawn Berlitz. Both at some point had a crush on me during my journey with them through Hoenn and Sinnoh respectively. I only saw them as younger sisters since I was always helping them train for contests, especially May. There were a few couple other girls I traveled with, but none of them showed interest in me, that way. Subsequently, I think there were like one or two girls who I think might have had feelings for me, but I was only around them for, at most, a couple of days."
"What about all those girls you traveled with?"
"They moved on. In fact, they all have boyfriends now."
"So there's nobody else?"
Ash was hesitant to answer the brunette's question, but knew he had to. "Well...there is one more: my latest female companion, Serena."
"Who's that?"
"Believe it or not, she's someone I met before you. It was at Prof. Oak's summer camp when I was had just turned 7. I found her alone and hurt out in the woods, so I helped her up and took her back to the camp. I didn't see her again once the camp ended, that is until I challenged the Santalune Gym."
"And she has a crush on you too?"
"Actually...she said she loved me." Hearing Ash say that made Leaf's jaw drop slightly.
"She said that?!"
"Yes, but not to me. I overheard her talking to my friends and she doesn't know I heard her say that."
"So...what are going to do with that information?" she asked.
Ash sighed heavily. "I don't know. Before, I was thinking about how I felt about her and perhaps telling her after the tournament. But with you back...I don't know how I feel anymore and that's something I'm not used to."
Leaf looked at Ash with sympathetic eyes. "You know, if you don't us to hang out so you can figure out what you're thinking, I'll leave." she said. She got up from the bench, but Ash grabbed her wrist before she could leave.
"No. I'll think about it later. For now, let's just keep hanging out together. After all, I haven't told you what I've done since I last saw you." he said as he got up.
"Yeah, sounds great." she said. Both of them realized that Ash was still holding Leaf's wrist. He let go of her wrist.
"Sorry."
"It's fine." Ash called for Pikachu to take his spot on Ash's shoulder, which the electric type did and the two left the bench.
While many of the competitors were walking around Shalour Stadium, there was one who was nowhere near the area. Mike Shamrock was currently inside Shalour Gym along with Korrina and her grandfather, Gurkinn. Korrina had closed the gym for as long as the tournament was underway, so this gave Mike a private battlefield to work on his strategies.
Right now, he was preparing a test with his new combo move, the Curb Stomp. As Mike was out on the battlefield instructing his Lucario and Korrina's Machoke on what to do. Korrina and her grandfather were out of ear shot, up on the railing.
"Are you sure your boyfriend knows what he's doing?" Gurkinn asked.
"He says he does. I guess he's had this move in his mind for a while now." Korrina answered. Mike walked away from the two Pokemon and walked up to Korrina and Gurkinn. Next to the two was a desk that Mike had asked for. On it was his laptop and a video camera that was connected to the laptop.
"Alright. We're just about ready to run this test." he said, while typing something on his laptop.
"I assume you've tried this test before?" Gurkinn asked.
Mike scoffed. "Of course I did. I've tested in on my own Pokemon. I just haven't been able to record it since the tests with my own Pokemon were in forests."
"So Machoke will be alright afterwards?" Korrina asked.
"That's right. There's nothing to worry about, Kore. Trust me, I've done this test a few times and after a day's rest or a quick heal at a Pokemon Center, they were ready for training like nothing had happened to them." he said, looking right at the blonde.
"I trust you; more than anyone." she said. The comment made Mike smile. He leaned forward and gave Korrina a peck on her cheek, making the blonde blush slightly. He turned back to make sure everything on his laptop was up and running.
"OK, Lucario and Machoke, get into your battle stances." he said, which the two obliged. "And...go!" he said.
Machoke threw a punch at Lucario, but the Aura Pokemon dodged it and started using Close Combat. Lucario initially focused on Machoke's head, throwing punches and forearm shots, but then started targeting Machoke's thighs by kicking them repeatedly. After several kicks to his thighs, Machoke went down to his knees. Then, Lucario took a few steps back and rushed up and kicked Machoke right in his face, bring the fighting type down on it's stomach.
"Is that it?" Gurkinn asked.
"Nope. That was the 1st part." Mike answered. "Lucario, begin the 2nd part!" he yelled to his partner. Lucario nodded her head and jumped back far enough to get a running start. A few moments later, Machoke started to try and get back up on his feet. "Go!" Mike once again yelled to Lucario. She shook her right foot, which suddenly caught on fire and ran right to Machoke, who was on his knees, about to get up when Lucario placed her right foot onto the back of Machoke's head and drove it right back into the ground! A small cloud of dust covered the field for a minute. When it cleared, Machoke was still down and Lucario was now a couple of steps away from him.
The three went to the battlefield to check on Machoke. Mike rolled him over and all three saw that Machoke had swirls in his eyes. Gurkinn checked Machoke to make sure he didn't have any serious injures and was relieved to see that there weren't any serious injurys that couldn't be solved by a healing from Nurse Joy.
"He'll be alright." Gurkinn said. "I'll go ahead and take him to the Pokemon Center." he said. Korrina handed her grandfather Machoke's Pokeball. He returned the fighting type and left the battlefield.
Mike turned towards his partner. "Well done, Lucario." he said, extending his fist. Lucario did the same with her paw and the two's met in a fist bump.
"Wow, that was so cool! But, how did Lucario set her foot on fire?" Korrina asked.
"It's Blaze Kick. Myself and Prof. Rowan are certain that one of Lucario's parents was a fire type; most likely a Blaziken." Mike answered.
"So Blaze Kick's an egg move?"
"Yep. It's comes in handy as many aren't expecting it."
"Excuse me!" A voice yelled. The two turned to the entrance of the battlefield to see one of Shalour Gym's assistants calling out to them. "Mr. Shamrock, they're are going to reveal the matches for round 2 in a few minutes!" he said.
"Thank you for informing us." he said. He turned back to Korrina and Lucario. "Shall we?" he said, extending his arm for his lady.
"We shall." she responded as the two linked arms and walked out the gym together with Lucario walking right behind them.
Meanwhile, Ash's friends had continued their search for Ash and Leaf with no success. Suddenly, a voice rang out over the speakers.
"Attention all remaining competitors, the 2nd round matches for the Knights of Mega Evolution Tournament will be revealed in the Pokemon Center in five minutes!" the voice said.
"How much you guys want to bet we'll find Ash and Leaf there?" Misty joked.
"If we don't, then as far as I'm concerned, it's a sign that the world's ending." Gary joked right back.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Serena said as she started running. She ran no more than a few feet before she accidentally bumped into someone, sending her down to the ground. Her friends rushed up to her and helped her up.
"I'm so sorry, miss. I wasn't looking." the person she bumped into said.
"It's alright, I wasn't really paying attention myse-"
"Serena?" the person asked. Serena looked at who she bumped into. The person wore a long sleeved version of Ash's jacket, blue pants, black boots, a red hat with sunglasses over them, a bag over his shoulder and a mega ring on his wrist. Serena realized who it was when she saw the black hair that was out of his hat and more importantly, his grayish-blue eyes.
"Calem?!"
End of Chapter 5
Now before I get a millions reviews all asking the same question, let me make one thing perfectly clear: Just because Calem is now in the story doesn't mean that FurtherShipping will win! I'm just covering my bases by bringing him in so Serena can have her own happy ending should she not end up being with Ash.
Anyway, be sure to favorite, follow and leave a review. Also, a special shout-out to LightRayPearlshipper for his constructive reviews. They've certainly motivated me to make this story better.
I don't know when my next update will be as June will be a very busy month for me. I'll try to update by August, but I can't make any promises.
Until next time, this is the man known as nWore signing out!