It was late into the evening in Pallet Town. The grass and trees were rippling like gentle ocean waves in the cool breeze. The moonlight and brilliant stars reflected brightly on the river, giving the appearance that the water was a second night sky. The soft sounds of sleeping Pokémon could be heard from the foliage that surrounded the small town. The environment would lull most people into a deep and relaxed sleep. Unfortunately, not everybody could enjoy the serenity of the night. A young teenager with messy, black hair sat alone atop the roof of his home. This young man was none other than Ash Ketchum. Similarly to the water types swimming around in the starry river, troubling thoughts swam through Ash's mind. He let out a soft sigh as he perched his chin on his arm.

"Trouble sleeping, Ash?" a familiar voice asked.

Ash turned around to see his best friend and longtime companion, Pikachu. The little Pokémon rubbed some sleepiness from his eyes and positioned himself comfortably in Ash's lap. Looking up at his trainer Pikachu blatantly asked a simple question.

"What's wrong?"

"Who says anything's wrong? I'm perfectly fine," Ash lied unconvincingly.

"Do you really expect me to believe that? You're alone on a ceiling at eleven thirty six at night. Please, tell me I just want to help." Pikachu reassured sitting up to pat his trainer's shoulder.

Minutes ticked by as the moon slowly shifted in the sky. A thick and heavy blanket of silence seemed to cover the two. While Ash seemed to be contemplating something, Pikachu was very near shocking him. Of course, he wouldn't do such a thing at this time as it seemed to be a very delicate situation. Something was defiantly wrong if Ash had managed to quietly think about the same thing for several minutes.

"Do you… think I'm a good trainer, Pikachu?" He asked hesitantly.

Pikachu froze. He wasn't seriously asking him that was he? Out of all the things that he could have asked, it had to be something like that? To Pikachu, that question had only one obvious answer. Concern grew in the little Pokémon's eyes as he looked at Ash. Why wasn't the answer obvious to him?

"Ash, you are the best trainer a Pokémon could ever ask for and I consider myself to be one of the luckiest Pokémon in the world to have you. Why are you asking me, don't you already know that?"

"Do you think that they feel the same way?" Ash asked pointing towards Professor Oak's laboratory.

"Yes, I do. You played with all of us all day today, doesn't that mean anything?"

Ash paused for a moment to think about the way he was going to word what he wanted to say. "Of course it does but it's just that… We've met some really powerful trainers with even stronger Pokémon. Do you think that's what they did? Doesn't battling them scare you?"

"Battling strong Pokémon doesn't scare me nearly as much as it used to. In fact, a lot of things that used to scare me don't anymore because of you. I see something little scary now, though."

"What?" Ash asked looking around for some towering, laser-shooting, monster or any other perceived threat that he could conjure up in his overactive imagination.

"There's a lot more to being a trainer than making your Pokémon fight well, Ash. Truth be told, I'm scared because you're not acting like yourself."

"What do you mean? I'm still me," Ash protested.

"What I mean is you're usually a happy-go-lucky, carefree, energetic, headstrong but kind and considerate person. Now you're acting like a depressed lump with no will whatsoever, like a stray breeze could knock you down. I know this may seem a bit silly but I get a lot of my strength from your attitude. Nothing ever seems to deter you no matter how big the problem may be and when I see that I think 'wow, I want to be like you!' You're a lot more to me than just my trainer, Ash."

Ash looked at the little yellow Pokémon in his lap with wide eyes. Did he really think that highly of him? He felt that Pikachu, too was much more than just his Pokémon but wasn't quite sure how to properly express how he felt. The feeling felt clear in his heart but he simply couldn't put it to words. He needed to find something new to call him; best friend just didn't feel right anymore. Maybe, if Pikachu told what he meant by him being more than his trainer Ash could find a way to say how he felt.

"What do you mean by more than your trainer?"

For some reason Pikachu started to flush "I-if I tell you, do you promise not to laugh?"

"Of course," Ash promised with utmost seriousness.

"Well, ever since the day we met, you've kind of been like a… d-dad, to me. I remember what you told me on our first day, about being just like all Pokémon and how you suggested I started to act like one when I didn't listen to you. Of course back then I didn't think anything of it but looking back it seemed like how a dad would scold their child." A thick silence surrounded Pikachu for a moment before he gave a small whimper. Ash looked down to his partner in concern before the little Pokémon exploded with a rather sudden emotional outburst.

"Things would have worked out so much better that day if I had just listened to you, Ash! That Rattata wouldn't have stolen your stuff and those Spearow would have never attacked!"

Pikachu started to get a little worked up at the memory of the attack. Memories came flooding to him, time after time he relived Ash almost dying or actually dying. Falling and jumping off cliffs, angering powerful or even legendary Pokémon, setting off traps, he was possessed by a homicidal ghost and even eaten by a magical tree Pete's sake! Ash didn't know it, but Pikachu would sometimes blame himself for not being strong enough to protect him, or worse, when he felt that he had caused the situation that put Ash in danger.

"Those monsters! If I had just listened to you like any good Pokémon would have, it would have never happened! You stood in front of me and protected me and, and I was such a jerk to you! You defended me; you loved me no matter what I did to you, just like a dad would!"

Ash didn't know that the attack had bothered his partner so much and the fact that he didn't know that for such a long time made it even worse. He scooped his partner up in a supportive hug and let him cry over his shoulder for a while, gently patting his back. He felt a little awkward though, it wasn't like Pikachu to cry, but he supposed it wasn't characteristic of him to be openly insecure either. Still though, the word… dad felt foreign to him.

"I-I love you, Ash," Pikachu finally sniffled out after calming down a bit and hugging him a little tighter.

Ash was a little surprised at those words. Of course he knew they loved each other but they rarely ever said it, it was nice to hear, though. Maybe they could tell each other that just a little bit more often? Now was probably a good place to start.

"I love you too, Pikachu. I really hate to see you like this. It wasn't all bad though, we would have never met Misty if you'd listened to me, and heaven knows how we would have ended up without her around!" He gave a fond smile at the memories of the girl whose temper was only matched by the fiery color of her hair.

"L-look at me, I came out h-here to cheer you up an-and here I am c-crying my eyes out!" Pikachu choked out, burying his muzzle into Ash's now wet shoulder.

"It's okay, I do feel lot better now knowing how you feel," Ash assured stroking Pikachu's back for a few precious, quiet minutes. "So, erm… dad, huh?" He started awkwardly.

"I-I'm sorry Ash, I shouldn't have…"

"No, no, it's not bad in fact I kind of feel good about it. I just, well, I never really knew my dad. Mom says I was a baby when he, uh, passed away. So I don't really know if I've been doing this whole dad thing right. Does this mean I have to, like take you fishing or something? Oh gee, do you want to go fishing, Pikachu? Dad's take their sons fishing, right? That's a thing I'm pretty sure…"

Son, the word hit Ash like a sack of bricks. That's what it was, not best friend but son. Realizing the word made it even more of a confusing, shocking, but beautiful experience. He had a son.

"No, Ash please don't ever change, you're doing a great job."

"So we don't need to go fishing?"

"We can if you want to, it's your decision. Just don't expect me to call you daddy while we're there," Pikachu chuckled lightly, getting down from Ash's shoulder.

"Please, just once," Ash pleaded, surprising even himself with the request.

At first, Pikachu was going to deny it but then he saw his trainer's eyes. He legitimately wanted him to say it, there was no playful mirth in his eyes at all, he was dead serious. Trying to avoid eye contact, Pikachu's eyes went to the left where he saw… Ash's shoulder that was still wet from him crying on it not even a few minutes ago. Seeing that, along from the pleading look from his and he sighed at this, daddy, was enough to make Pikachu just fess up and confess what they both knew was true.

"I love you… daddy," He admitted with a wince.

"I know this is crazy buddy, but you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that!" Ash exclaimed scooping his "son" up in a near bone-crushing hug.

Pikachu felt a warm liquid run down his back. Was Ash crying now? What a sappy night it had turned out to be!

"I promise to be the best dad ever, Pikachu! You'll see buddy, we'll do all sorts of fun stuff! We'll fish, play catch, go to sports games and races, I don't have a lot of 'old man' stories to tell you but it could still be fun!" Ash marveled at how their future seemed to change so much and yet so little at the same time.

"Sounds great, Ash I'm really looking forward to it," Pikachu imagined that if he caught a Magikarp while fishing, it would probably have some choice words for him. "I think that we should head on inside before your mom wakes up and sees us on the roof." He shuddered at the thought of the punishment that would surely come if she found out.

Nodding in agreement, Ash climbed back through his window and snuck into his bed. Pikachu happily jumped onto his usual spot, the base of the bed, where he curled up to sleep.

"Thanks, Pikachu I feel a lot better now."

"No problem… Pops"

Ash was about to object, pops just made him sound old. Before he could, however he found himself drifting off to sleep. That night, Ash dreamed of him and Pikachu on an old paddle boat in the middle of a lake, fishing. They both wore silly fishing fest and matching hats. The only difference the hats had, aside from size, was the crude stitching that they had just above the lip. Pikachu wore a small hat with "Pika" stitched into it and Ash had a larger hat with the word "Pops" stitched proudly on it. With only the rocking of the boat and his "son" next to him, perhaps being someone's "old man" wasn't so bad after all.