When Ash was ten, there was an accident.
He doesn't remember it. He doesn't remember his mother's grief. He doesn't remember the empty words of sympathy she was given.
He doesn't remember how far she went to get him back.
###
Ash is ten when he meets eight-year-old Gary Oak, grandson of a world-famous pokemon professor (and Ash is awed by how much Gary knows about pokemon, and Gary is thrilled to have impressed someone older than him).
Professor Oak smiles at his mother, asking questions that don't make much sense to Ash, and then he turns to Ash and asks more questions that don't make sense.
"What did it look like?"
"Do you remember what happened?"
"Do you know how old you are?"
"Do you know how long you've been ten?"
But it's worth it, because he tells Ash a little about his work afterwards, and Ash thinks that even with the weird questions Professor Oak is pretty cool.
###
Ash is ten, and the teachers at school are looking at him a little strangely, because he should be eleven by now. His memory starts playing weird tricks - some of the lessons he learned last year just vanish, as if they never happened.
Nine-year-old Gary thinks he's a little strange for not growing older, but grins and says, "Hey, if you're still ten next year, we can go on our pokemon journeys together!"
Ash agrees, thrilled by the idea. His mother is a little nervous of him going out on his own, but it's much less than she used to be, and by next year she'll probably have no worries at all.
###
"So, you're gonna start aging now, right?"
"Can't."
Ten-year-old Gary looks upset, then furious. "You have to! We're gonna be epic rivals! You have to stay on the same level as me!"
"I can stay at your level without growing up!" Ash shouts back, hurt and angry, and the fight ends with them both storming off.
Ash is still ten.
###
Ash is ten, and has just found a group of wild pikachu, and is fleeing in tears because seeing the babies and parents just reminds him that they'll grow older, that his partner will grow older, and he won't, ever, so it's not fair to keep his partner by his side when he knows he can't keep up...
But Pikachu chooses to stay with him, and a tiny part of Ash almost can't believe it, because no one else ever has.
He sends his other pokemon away when they find somewhere they can belong, when they're strong enough to be okay on their own, because he never wants to hold them back, but Pikachu stays. Always, always, Pikachu stays.
And always, Ash is ten.
###
Ash runs between the fighting pokemon because he's never been the careful type, and he doesn't feel like he can die.
Pikachu and the other pokemon cry for him, and they all feel something draw power from their grief (the way it drew power from a grieving mother years ago) and then Ash is reviving, stone returning to flesh, and not even the eldest among the witnesses understands what they are seeing (but then, Mew never has questioned anything that gives it something it wants).
Ash smiles at Pikachu, glad to see his friend is well.
It never occurred to him that there might be permanent consequences for what he did.
That's not the sort of thing ten-year-olds think of.
###
Ash is ten and he's made it to the League, he's trained and fought and while he isn't Champion he's still highly-ranked, and he doesn't forget. Not immediately, and then it doesn't matter because he's going to Johto, starting again in a new area. (For some reason, ghostly images of houses, towns, villages he doesn't remember living in slide through his head at the thought, but he shakes them away and ignores them.)
Ash has to relearn some of the basics, but he picks them up easily - and he doesn't forget the important lessons, to respect and care for his pokemon.
He does pretty well, for a ten-year-old.
###
"Oh, grow up, Ash!"
He hears it a lot, and it stings every time, because he would, he wants to, but he can't, and it makes something in his chest ache to know that Misty wants something from him that he'll never be old enough to understand.
Misty leaves. Brock leaves. But it's fine, it doesn't matter, because he's already found new friends to travel with and then they leave too as they get older (and he doesn't) and it becomes a routine, weirdly comforting.
Misty is ten. Misty is twelve. Misty is fourteen.
Brock is seventeen. Brock is twenty. Brock is twenty-three.
Ash is ten. Ash is ten. Ash is ten.
###
At first, he thinks that Team Rocket are like him, just a little older but stuck the same way he is. It makes the way they keep hunting him worse, because he knows better and he's (always) ten.
But then they get close enough to see that he hasn't aged, and he sees that they have.
Neither side ever brings it up - the Rockets aren't going to make themselves look stupider than they already do, and Ash is vaguely aware that you shouldn't talk about someone else looking older.
(He doesn't know about the sneers they get for using old data when they chase him - "Come on, you've said this kid is ten for the past four years!" - or the way they keep their lips tight shut about it.
About the fact that when they started chasing him they were teenagers - and he was ten. They are now past twenty - and Ash is ten.)
###
Ash grins at Cilan and argues with Iris and hugs Pikachu close every night and refuses to think about who'll replace them when they grow beyond his reach.
He has a League to win.
He's going to become a Pokemon Master.
And so what if he doesn't really think about the future? He's not supposed to - he's too young for that.
After all, Ash is ten.