(A/N: Hey everyone! I'm new to the FanFic writer community and I decided to write a thing. This is my first time doing this thing, so please be gentle. I don't mind negative criticism as long as it's not aggressive, please help me be a better writer and don't shut me down. That being said, please enjoy!)
Chapter 1: There's No Place Like Home
The sun is shining brightly over the hills of Pallet Town. A young raven haired 10-year old is still fast asleep, eagerly dreaming of the day he can become a Pokémon trainer. He turns over in his bed, gently smiling with the thought of beginning his own journey. The sunlight catches his eye and slowly wakes up.
"Man, I get to be a trainer today…" he thinks to himself. "WAIT!"
A sudden realization hits him and he rushes out of bed. He's already late to get his starter Pokémon! He rushes out of bed, still in his pajamas, without a second thought. He sprints down the dirt road that leads up to Professor Oak's ranch. As he approaches, he sees 6 figures standing in front of the gate; 3 humanoid figures and 3 small creatures.
"Took you long enough Ashy boy!" yells one of the figures, a cocky smile on his face.
One of the other figures pushes the gate open for the rushing child.
"Piss off Gary! I'm late!" he yells back, sprinting through the gate and into Professor Oak's lab.
As he bursts through the door, an old gray-haired man is standing beside a machine. He just smiles as Ash catches his breath. He tosses Ash a bottle of water, the smile still ever present.
"I had a feeling this would happen Ash. But I don't see why you rushed, your Pokémon has been reserved for you. Besides, it's only you and the other 3 outside," Oak said.
"I'm sorry Professor Oak, I guess I got excited," Ash said, finally catching his breath.
The professor just smiled and shook his head. He reached over the machine and grabbed the only Pokeball in the machine. The red and white sphere had a lightning bolt engraved on it, indicating the Pokémon held within.
"Just take it boy, you've waited long enough. He's yours," Oak said.
He extends his hand out, waiting for Ash to take it. Ash just stares, eyes widening. This was the day he was waiting for, the day he always dreamed of. He slowly reaches out and grabs the ball. He thumbs the ball, feeling the lightning bolt engraved on the front before throwing it into the air, releasing the Pokémon within.
With a crack of white light, a small yellow rodent appears. It quickly shakes itself and makes a face of discontent being held captive by such a small space. The small rodent turns around and immediately smiles seeing who is standing behind him. Ash holds his arms open and the rodent jumps into them before rubbing his cheek on Ash's.
"Hey Pikachu, big bad man Oak put you back in your ball huh?" Ash said playfully.
"Pika pi…" Pikachu responded, clearly upset by that fact.
He hops on to Ash's shoulder and glares at Oak evilly. Oak looks back nervously, holding his hands up in self-defense.
"Okay, let's calm down now, there's no reason to get feisty, it's all a part of the tradition," Oak says defensively.
Pikachu relaxes, his smile returning to his face. Oak sighs and turns to the table to his left and grabs a small red device.
"I'm sure you already know what this is Ash. Here's your Pokedex," Oak says while handing him the Pokedex.
Ash, already being familiar with the device, attempts to put it in his pocket and subsequently drops it due to the lack of pockets in his pajamas pants.
"Oops…" Ash says nervously.
Oak just sighs and picks it up for him.
"Go home and change boy. You have a long 6 years ahead of you."
"6 years? What are you talking about?" asks Ash in a confused manner.
"After many young trainers have been attacked, robbed, and killed, the league requires that new trainers take at least 6 years in a 'New Trainer School' that teaches survival skills, basic hand-to-hand combat, and other general ideas. Now you should get going before registration closes tomorrow." Oak says, gently pushing Ash and Pikachu towards the door.
As soon as Ash reaches outside, he turns around to say his goodbyes.
"Alright Professor Oak, tha-," He is cut off by a door being slammed in his face. "Alright then…"
He turns around and sees that his friends have been watching the whole exchange. He slowly walks down the hill towards the rest of the group. Professor Oak watches Ash leave from the window, unknown to the young boy.
"I finally got rid of that Pikachu. I don't know how that boy gets along with him so well," Oak says to himself.
As Ash is about to leave his view, Pikachu turns around from atop Ash's shoulder and sends a mischievous wink to Oak in the window. Oak immediately panics and drops the curtains to conceal his face from the mouse Pokémon. The whole exchange goes unnoticed by Ash and the group. The pair finally reach the bottom of the hill to where the rest of the group is waiting for him. Ash noticed that everyone returned their Pokemon to their ball already.
"Took you long enough, Ashy boy," Gary says.
"Shut up Gary. Besides, you said that already," Ash says.
Gary just closes his eyes and huffs with the same cocky grin on his face. One of the other friends takes a step closer to Ash with a cute smile on her face. She has a white hat on with a pink ribbon around the brim that contained her long brunette hair. Her teal blouse wraps her torso loosely with a red skirt reaching to about her knees, her knee high socks matching her shirt. She stares directly into Ash's eyes with a fond expression.
"Hey Ash, Pikachu looks really happy," the girl said while scratching Pikachu behind his long ears. Pikachu let out a squeal of content.
"Yeah, I guess he's happy to start this adventure too. Speaking of that, what's up with this news about a Trainer School?" Ash asked.
The girl stepped back and Gary's eyes shot open with a confused look.
"You mean you don't know about it?" He asked with an unbelieving tone.
"No, I haven't. Professor Oak told me all about it," Ash responded.
"So you haven't registered yet?! Let's go!" the girl yells, grabbing Ash by the wrist, effectively dragging him down the path. Ash yanks his wrist free and starts to rub it from the death grip it just received.
"Now hold on Leaf, I need to go home to change first," Ash responds hastily. Leaf just rubs the back of her head embarrassed.
"Hey Ash, think fast!" Gary yells.
Without getting a chance to react, the fourth person tosses a backpack at Ash's face, knocking him to the floor. Pikachu jumps off Ash's shoulder in the nick of time onto Leaf's head, preventing him from falling with Ash.
"Thanks Red…" Ash says painfully.
Red just smiles. Ash rolls his eyes then opens the backpack up. Pikachu hops off Leaf's head back on Ash's shoulder and takes a look in the bag as well.
"Your mom came by earlier and gave us this bag. She knew you'd forget to get up early," Leaf said cheerfully.
"Typical Ashy boy," Gary states.
Ash glares back at Gary, while Leaf gives Gary an unamused look.
The pair on the floor see a change of clothes and a hat within the bag. Pikachu, however, detects something else. He dives into the bag, his lower half of his tiny body sticking out of the bag. Pikachu emerges with Ash's hat on his head and a little Ziploc bag with some treats in his mouth. Ash smiles and takes the hat off Pikachu's head, placing it on his own head and scratching Pikachu behind his ears, similarly to how Leaf did just a few minutes ago. Pikachu lets out another content squeal, causing the bag to drop to the ground. Ash picks it up, revealing a label with the words 'for Pikachu' on the side, clearly written by his mother. He opens up the bag to which Pikachu dives for and begins devouring.
Ash takes out the clothes and gives it a look over. The clothes his mother left were a plain black tee, a light blue jacket with white sleeves, baggy jeans, black and white sneakers, and green fingerless gloves. He stands up and begins trying to take off his shirt, but is stopped by the group.
"Bro, what is wrong with you?!" Gary yells in disgust.
Leaf looks away blushing, while Red just stares with an awkward face.
"What? It's not like you guys haven't seen me with a shirt on, we've known each other for years," Ash responds.
It's true, the group met when they were all the age of 5. They met at Oak's summer camp many years ago under interesting circumstances. It all started with a "friendly" interaction between Ash and Gary.
Flashback
Ash is standing in the middle of Oak's ranch with a Pikachu at his feet.
"Hey buddy, you wanna do something fun?" Ash asked the yellow creature with a mischievous grin on his face.
Pikachu looked up at him, reflecting the same grin. He already knew what they were going to do. He hopped onto the young boy's head and pointed to a group of Tauros. On top of one the Tauros was none other than Gary Oak. Ash ran and hid behind the bush closest to the herd, peeking his head out just to find out where Gary was situated. He had his back to Ash and Pikachu.
"Alright buddy, do your thing," Ash whispered.
Pikachu silently nodded and walked through the herd until he reached under the Tauros Gary was sitting on. Pikachu picked up some dirt in his paws and rubbed it in different places on his body. He stepped out from under the Tauros, faking pain. Gary spotted Pikachu, immediately hopping down to tend to it.
"Hey there little guy, are you hurt?" Gary asked.
Pikachu's expression changed to one of happiness and shook his head. Confused, Gary decided to reach for him to pick him up. Once Gary had him level with his face, Pikachu lifted his arms in celebration.
"Huh?" Gary said confused.
"Pika!"
Immediately Gary was blinded by a bright light and dropped Pikachu to tend to his eyes. Pikachu scurried away, knowing what came next.
The Tauros were also been blinded and began panicking. One of them scooped Gary blindly and toss him onto the back of another Tauros. The herd began running in different directions in panic. Gary was nearly thrown off the one he was unintentionally thrown on and decided to hold on for dear life instead of rubbing his eyes. His blurry vision could barely make out the figure of a little girl.
The Tauros was running straight at her. Gary widened his eyes to see the girl dancing in the field, unaware of the danger that was literally about to hit her.
"LEAF LOOK OUT!" Gary yelled.
Leaf turned around and her eyes widen, seeing a stampeding Tauros about 10 feet away from her. Frozen with fear, she held her ground. Just as she was about to get demolished, a boy tackled her out of the way.
As soon as they were safe, Leaf opened her eyes to see Gary being thrown off the Tauros on to the ground. She looked at her savior and saw the enraged face of her twin brother, Red. Red removed himself from Leaf, not even helping her up. He picked Gary up by his navy blue long-sleeved shirt, lifting him off the ground. Gary was shocked to see that another 5-year-old could lift him off the ground.
"It's not my fault! I didn't start the stampede! It was that Pikachu!" Gary pleaded.
Some sort of realization hits Red and he turned around. He saw Leaf, sitting on the ground with fear still on her face. He wasn't looking at Leaf, however, he was looking at Ash and Pikachu, both rolling on the ground laughing.
Ash was the only person that got along with a Pikachu.
Red dropped Gary, dirtying his jeans, and made his way to Ash, helping Leaf up and brushing dirt off her along the way. Gary and Leaf followed Red at a distance, not knowing what was about to happen. When Red reached Ash, he just stood over the rolling figure with his arms folded. Ash saw the angry boy standing above him, he got up.
"What's up Red?" Ash asked, nonchalantly.
Without a word, Red stepped to the side, revealing Leaf with fear still in her eyes.
"Oh did that Tauros almost hit her? I'm sorry," Ash said sincerely.
Red didn't verbally respond and punched Ash in the nose instead. Pikachu saw this and recoiled in fear.
"What's the big idea! I said I was sorry!" Ash yelled, clutching his nose.
Red reached back to punch him again, but Leaf grabbed his arm. Red looked back at Leaf, surprised.
"Stop it Red, you told mom you'd behave," Leaf said, the fear gone from her eyes.
Red relaxed and looked back at Ash, who had slightly recovered. His nose wasn't bleeding, so he decided he would let it slide. Red extended his hand out, a sorry expression on his face. Pikachu jumped on to the young boy's head while he looked at Red's hand and narrowed his eyes.
"Fine, I forgive you," Ash said after a minute of staring.
Red gave Ash an extremely surprised look when Ash shook his hand. Ash just smiled, enjoying the confused look Red had, but he was sincere with his forgiveness. Just then, Ash's stomach rumbled loudly. He removed his hand from Red's and scratched the back of his head nervously.
"You guys wanna go inside and get some food? I'm a little hungry," Ash asked.
Red smiled and nodded, Leaf just smiled, but Gary looked disgusted.
"After that, you want me to be your friend? You're lucky if I don't tell gramps what you did!" Gary said.
"You don't have to come, Gary. We already know you sit by yourself anyway," Ash responded cheekily.
Gary was going to respond, but couldn't; he was right, he was lonely. Without much of a choice, he reluctantly accepted.
"Fine, I'll come, but don't think this is an everyday thing!" Gary responded.
Boy was he wrong.
Flashback end
"Just go change behind a tree or something," Leaf suggests still blushing.
Red notices her expression, but just brushes it off.
Ash groans and reluctantly walks behind the tree. He takes his shirt off and replaces it with the black one his mom left him. As he removes his pants, Leaf leans over to try and peek at Ash from where she stands.
Gary, deep in thought about how the group came to be, doesn't notice while Red observes Leaf closely. He taps her on the shoulder, breaking her from her trance. He stares directly into her eyes while narrowing his.
She realizes she was caught and looks away nervously. Red continues to stare at Leaf, wondering what she was doing. Leaf was feeling Red's eyes pierce the back of her head.
"Come on Ash, hurry up!" she thought to herself.
Just then, Ash came out from behind the tree, putting his jacket on. Leaf let out a sigh of relief when Red looked away from her.
"Okay, I'm ready, let's go," Ash says.
Ash stood in front of Red, both noticing the similarities in their outfits. They both wore red and white hats and black tees, but Red's jacket was red and black instead of Ash's blue and white one.
"Come on, lets hurry!" Leaf says, grabbing Ash by the wrist again.
This time, she waited for Ash to be ready. Ash turned around and saw Pikachu finishing up what was left in the bag. Ash silently signals Pikachu, who jumps up on Ash's shoulder. He turns back around, letting Leaf know he's ready to go. She smiles and starts dragging him once again. Both Gary and Red shake their head and run after the pair.
A/N: That's Chapter 1 guys! Pretty short chapter if you ask me, but I felt if I added where I started Chapter 2, it would flow weird. Anyway, please leave constructive criticism, I need it as a new writer. Don't be afraid to review it. I'll try to push chapters out at least once a week, if time permits. Thanks again readers, see you next week!