Author's Note(s): Greetings fellow Pokeshippers/AAML fans! Despite having been admittedly been on board as a fully pledged Pokeshipper since the summer, I still felt driven to write for this years Pokeshipping week. And here's the first one, under the theme 'Fishing'. Enjoy.

Fishing in Thought

"Thanks for the fishing rod, Lana! You're the best," Ash complimented to his classmate that evening. It had been a long day for sure. In the Alola region, Ash had taken to one very surprising thing at the age of seventeen, he decided to attend a Pokémon school, insanity.

That day his class had gone on a fishing trip out on the ocean from Melemele Island, and it had been an interesting trip. Only Lana had caught any Pokémon that day, and Lillie fished one Milotic… That got away in the end, and also sent Ash flying into the water. The class had also had another interference done on them that day in the form of Team Rocket up to their usual antics, but Lana and her Popplio were quick to save the day with Popplio having found the inner strength to finally blow a balloon – as Rotom-dex had described – 1000% times bigger than what Popplio could've done before in order to saves the classes ride Pokémon from certain injury.

But now that the day was over and they were all back home – well, not really home for Ash Ketchum, but that's beside the point – on Melemele Island, and Ash had gone back to Lana's house with the intent of returning the bluenette's fishing rod back to her. Lana just stared at him for a bit, surprised by the unannounced visit as he had caught her whilst walking out of her house. "Ash, you can keep the fishing rod you know, right? I have plenty of spares so you keeping one is okay with me," she stated.

"Oh, really? It is?!" Ash asked, Lana nodded her head in the positive. "You're sure?"

"Yes, I've plenty of others, you're more than welcome to keep it."

"Oh wow, thanks Lana!" Ash then had a bit of stray thought then. "Hey? I don't suppose you're the type who makes her own lures then?"

"Um… Not really, no," Lana replied, quite surprised by Ash's odd question, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's just that I've had friends in the past who keep retractable fishing lures with them. Heck, there were two who made their own custom lures in the mirror image of themselves. I just figured maybe you also do the same, what with you loving water-type Pokémon like her a lot," Ash said with a shrug.

"Oh, I see. Those two friends of yours sound like amazing water Pokémon lovers then," Lana smiled, always eager to discuss water-types. "Who were they and what were they like?" she continued as she closed the door and beckoned Ash to join her as she sat down over the pier next to her house to gaze out on the ocean.

Ash plopped down uneasily next to her as Pikachu went to go talk to Lapras whilst Ash pulled a sleepy Rowlet out and put him beside him. Rotom-dex just sighed. "Always asleep that one. Bzt, bzt," it beeped.

"Well," Ash began, "There's Cilan. He's a Pokémon Connoisseur, and a great chef too! But he's also this big fan of a bunch of other things like skyscrapers, underground trains, detective shows, and as I mentioned, fishing. The guy carries a retractable fishing rod around with him all the time, and also creates his own custom lures…" Ash trailed off, Lana was left wondering why. But then Ash started to talk again as he raised his head to gaze out on the ocean.

"Heh, Misty did the exact same thing too, using custom lures to go fishing with."

"Who's Misty, Ash?" Lana asked, pondering if Ash might…

"Oh, Misty is a gym leader back where I'm from, the Kanto region I mean," Ash began, a sort of light growing in his eyes, it wasn't as bright per se as it may get when Ash was battling or catching Pokémon, but it was there. "She's gym leader of the Cerulean gym, a water-type gym, you'd love it there Lana, they even have an aquarium setup, and lemme tell you, Misty's no pushover when it comes to water-types. Love them to bits," he ended with a fond smile.

"She does huh?" Lana mused.

"Yeah! Heck, the way she got when trainers dared to mock water-types, her temper got really fired up."

"Uh-huh… Tell me more about this Misty, erm if you could."

Ash blinked at the smaller girl in surprise, Lana was getting surprisingly curious about his first travelling companion, but seemed uninterested in Cilan. Then again, he thought, Misty was a water-type lover like she was, maybe she was just curious to know more about her.

"Misty's an orange haired girl, has a tomboy personality, she actually started off with a pretty heated temper for sure, but after two years of travelling with me she mellowed out. Now she's pretty nice and all that. She loves sweets, especially chocolate, but despises carrots, peppers, and bug-type Pokémon – except for Butterfree's and Heracross' – but I don't know how she feels about dual water/bug Pokémon, well not yet anyways.

"The way I met her was pretty funny, it was on the first day me and Pikachu set out on our journey together. We didn't get along at first, long story short we were being chased by a flock of Spearow and ended up falling into a really fast river current. I didn't know how long we were down there, but from what I remember we were both nearly eaten by a Gyarados! Anyways, my jacket actually got hooked by Misty who was fishing, she may be scrawny and lacks muscle, but man, she was strong enough to yank me out of the water and a few feet into the air," Ash then chuckled at the memory. "Because the Spearow were still chasing us, I stole her bike, Pikachu ended up destroying it, and ever since then for two years she followed me around."

"Wow, some introduction you two had of each other," Lana mused, "Anything else about her?"

"She cares a lot for her friends and Pokémon, she won't quite take the risks I do to help them, friends and Pokémon I mean," Ash stated, "But she cares in her own way," he grinned at that last statement before lightly chuckling, "With me it was a weird way for sure of her showing care for me, she'd hit me if I said anything stupid. And yelled quite a bit at me for my recklessness, but, y'know… She meant it with good intentions, even if it is under all that Gyarados style rage of hers.

"But as I said, caring, that was what she was. All throughout our times in Kanto, Orange Islands, and Johto she proved her worth with raising a Togepi which she was quite fond of. Unfortunately when we were reunited for a day whilst I was travelling in Hoenn she had to give up Togepi-… I mean Togetic to protect a kingdom of Togepi. But sometime after that she got an Azurill to take care of from… Tracey," then Lana saw Ash do something… interesting, getting mad when he said the name 'Tracey.'

Lana didn't completely know everything about Ash, but the guy was certainly an open book at times to tell that he didn't hold much to the past, sure he had memories but never dwelled on them, and when he talked about a man by the name of Tracey, he seemed just fine. But with the context of a girl named Misty, Lana was simply dumbfounded that Ash seemed bitter.

"Ash?" she began, "Are… You okay?"

"Pop?" asked Popplio as well, also noticing Ash's sudden coldness.

"Pikapi…?" Pikachu began, walking up to his buddy.

"Huh?" Ash snapped, woken up from his trance by all three looking at the tall boy with a concerned look, "…Um… Yeah, I-I-I'm fine. Err… Where was I?"

"You just mentioned that Misty has an Azurill that she got from Tracey."

"Oh. Oh yeah, that! Yeah, Tracey and Misty are… Good friends, though they are just friends," Ash insisted, "I mean, that is to say… I mean me and Misty? We're Best Friends. Hah… I actually admitted to her that after the Johto league when we… Had to… Go our separate ways from each other," Ash's watered up slightly at the sober memory before he blinked them away, this didn't go unnoticed by the Pokémon (including Lana's Lapras), and especially Lana. "But y'know, we still see each other from time to time, a letter, email and call or two. Often the time zones between where I am and back home make it difficult to communicate, but we get by," Ash finished.

"I see," Lana smiled, "So, Ash."

"Yeah?"

"Is she… Just a 'friend'?"

"W-What?! M-Misty?"

"Pikachupi?"

"Well, I… Yeah, j-just a friend. I mean sure I still think about her, and the 'what ifs' if she could've kept on travelling with me – I mean, she didn't want to go in the first place, I still actually call myself out for not knowing that at first – and she can be very supportive , and kind, and funny… Yeah, she's amazing," Ash ended rather joyfully. "What a great friend she is. Right, Lana?"

"Mm hmm," Lana simply nodded. Ash then glanced away to pull out his phone and saw the time.

"Oh! Oh, oh no! It's nearly dinner time, Professor Kukui will be wondering where I am! C'mon Pikachu! Rotom!" Ash scrambled up, picked up his bag and strung it over his shoulders as Pikachu joined it, he was about to run off when he remembered. "Oh! And thanks for the fishing rod Lana!"

"No problem!" Lana called back as the raven haired boy ran off. She then looked out onto the ocean thoughtfully… Stood up, and walked back into her house, to be quickly greeted by Harper and Sarah.

"Glup, glup! "Sis?" they went.

"Yes you two?"

"What were you doing with your boyfriend?" Harper teasingly asked whilst Sarah snickered in the background.

Lana just lightly laughed. "Oh please you two, I don't see Ash that way. And besides," she said with a smile as she looked out the window that faced the direction Ash had been running in. "He's already got a certain other girl in mind for himself. Ash just seems to have not realized it yet though."