"G'night!" Serena and Bonnie called as the two girls ducked into their tent. The boys echoed and headed to bed as well, Pikachu at their heels.
Ash dug his feet down into his sleeping bag, snickering when he popped Pikachu in the nose. "Sorry, buddy," he said, giving the mouse pokemon a scratch on the head. Ash looked over to Clemont, who sat on his sleeping bag with a small invention in hand, hunched over it with a screwdriver in hand. "Clemont?" Ash called quietly, "You OK?"
"I'm fine, why do you ask?" Clemont said, not moving his focus from the hunk of metal and wire in his hands.
"Well, you've been acting weird all day and you didn't sleep much last night…so you gotta be tired…" Ash trailed off, realizing that Clemont was barely listening to him. "C'mon, Clem, just go to bed!"
"I'm alright, Ash," Clemont said, "I just want to finish this."
"That sounds like a lie."
Clemont jumped, turning to face Ash, whose face was hard-set and actually quite close when did he get there.
"Tell me the truth, Clem," Ash started, leaning back and crossing his legs. "What's wrong with you? Why have been actin' all quiet and funny?"
Clemont hung his head, sighing as he abandoned his project and turned to fully face the Kanto boy. "It's just…the league is coming up…" Clemont mumbled, refusing to lift his gaze from his lap.
"Yeah, so?" Ash practically begged him to continue, leaning his weight onto one arm. "That's a good thing, right?"
"Well, yes and no…" Clemont said, finally looking up. "It's good for you because you finally get to do what you came here for, but," he paused, returning his gaze to his lap, "it's bad for the rest of us…for me…because win or lose you're going back to Kanto after the league. The journey's done. You have no other reason to be here, so you'll go to some other region and…and you'll forget all about us…" It was a lot for Clemont to admit, and he could feel his cheeks heating up. He just hoped that Ash understood.
"Well, that's just stupid!" Ash growled. Clemont popped his head back up just to see Ash scrambling to the other side of the tent and fumbling through his backpack.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Clemont asked.
"Here it is!" Ash exclaimed as quietly as he could. He wiggled back over to Clemont and plopped down a small tin box. Clemont asked what it was for, to which Ash just grinned and took the lid off. He felt around for the first thing he wanted, and held up a pink handkerchief with a red and yellow sun in the middle. "This," Ash began, "is from the very first friend I made on my very first journey. Her name was Misty and she's now the gym leader in Cerulean City back in Kanto. She gave me this on the day we parted ways."
Clemont blinked, slightly confused. Ash continued, plopping the handkerchief by his side and searching again for another object. He produced a broken, rusty white half of a pokeball. "This is from my first rival and childhood best friend, Gary. We were fishing one day and both snagged this pokeball. We fought over who got to keep it until it broke, which is when Gary took the whole thing and left me with nothing. But, after the Johto League when we both got home, he gave me this half to keep."
Noticing Clemont still not following, Ash continued. He picked up half of a ribbon with pink and white stripes and a gold center. "In Hoenn, I met this girl named May. We traveled together and she did these things called contests, where if you won you got a ribbon. Once you had five, you could compete in the Grand Festival. We both entered one together and ended up tying for the win. My Sceptile cut our ribbon in half, and May keeps one half as a lucky charm while I keep the other as a memory."
Ash pulled out another object, this time a Soothe Bell. "My rival in Sinnoh and I had to compete in a tag battle together, and two Soothe Bells were the prizes. I keep mine as a memory that Paul wasn't a completely terrible person that I wanted to kick in the face while wearing cleats."
Then, Ash took out a keychain. "Unova has this competition called the Junior Cup, and this was the participation prize. I keep it mostly because I got to see one of my best friends from Sinnoh again and because it was a fun memory with the two people I traveled with in Unova…"
At this point, the box was almost empty. A few letters and photos filled the bottom of the box, as well as a pokeball. Clemont furrowed his brow and reached for the ball. "What's this doing in here?" he asked, turning it over in his hands. The pokeball was charred and chipping, and a little lightning bolt sat over the clasp.
"That's Pikachu's pokeball…" Ash said with a smile. "Just because Pikachu will always be with me doesn't mean the day we met is any less of a memory…his pokeball doesn't really work anymore, but it's important to remember how we became best friends."
Clemont nodded and set the ball down gently in the tin box. "Why did you show me all this stuff?" he asked.
Ash sighed, dropping his head and shaking it before lifting it back up. "You said you were worried I'd forget about you and this journey? Does this look like I forget my friends?"
"But, we haven't really given you anything," Clemont said. He could feel tears brimming in his eyes, and he fought to keep them down.
"I don't need stuff to remember everyone, though. There's plenty of people I've met that haven't given me anything but a battle, so why would you guys be any different? I had to live with you, so I don't think I'll forget!" Ash laughed, and he felt relieved to see Clemont smile. "The best thing you guys have given me is friendship, and I couldn't ask for more."
Clemont nodded and brought his legs up to his chest as he tried to hide his grin. "Well…what if I want to give you something?" he asked.
Ash smiled, "You don't have to," he said.
"But, I want to…" Clemont said.
"Okaaaaaay," Ash sighed, caving in. "What is it, then?"
Clemont grabbed the project he'd been working on when all of this had started, fidgeting with it in his hands. He presented to Ash a little lock, a padlock of Prism Tower with red and yellow and light blue lighting up the inside. The bar at the top was unlocked, waving as Clemont shook.
"A lock?" Ash asked, taking the object and looking it over.
"In Kalos, there's a bridge where people put locks like this to sort of…'lock their love' for each other…" Clemont explained, pushing his glasses up.
"Then, why is this one unlocked?" Ash asked, dangling the lock on his thumb.
"Well, I was going to let you do that, if you wanted to do something this silly…" Clemont said. He produced the key and put it in Ash's hand. "And then, this is the only way to unlock it, us."
Ash smiled, putting the key back on Clemont's knee before dropping the bar into its slot and locking the padlock. "But, how do you turn off the lights so they don't burn out?" Ash asked. Clemont pressed a small button on the bottom of the lock, and the lights switched off. "Good! I wouldn't want something this cool to just stop working!"
With that, Ash packed up all his memories and put them back in his bag. All except the lock. That he made sure to put in the front pocket for safe keeping.
Can Clemont and Bonnie just please stay with Ash? This doesn't happen often that I get attached to the companions, so please keep them, Pokémon. I'm not ready to say goodbye, and I'm sure as heck not ready to watch them say goodbye.
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