Welcome, to my very first pearlshipping story. Don't like don't read.
Remember this is my first pearlshipping story so go easy on me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. If I did, I would make all my stories actually happen. Has that happened? No, which means I don't own Pokémon.
-*X*x*X*-
A trainer stood alone on the mountain side, his stoic expression watched the mountains ahead of him as if waiting for something. The lone trainer sighed and lowered his head causing the visor of his cap to cover the upper half of his face. He felt the strong wind blowing against his body, but did not move. He took of his cap allowing his unkempt, raven black hair to blow freely.
He felt the cold rush of the wind die down and was soon replaced by a slowly growing warmth. He opened his eyes and raised his head toward the mountains in front of him and saw the sun slowly rising above them, covering the valley with its warm glow.
His stoic expression started to fade and was soon replaced by sadness. Tears started to pool in his chocolate brown eyes, once full of excitement and happiness, now emotionless except for a few emotions, anger, hurt, and sadness. Soon tears rolled down his face and he closed his eyes as he remembered that day.
Flashback
"Ash's Pikachu is unable to battle. That was his last Pokémon, which means Ash has been eliminated and Trip will be proceeding to the semi-finals of the Vertress Conference."
Even though the conference ended last week, those words still echoed in his mind. The only thing that felt worse than the defeat was the look on Trip's face. Fourteen year old Ash wanted to punch Trip for looking at him like that, but then his main concern was healing his Pokémon.
Now a week later, Ash was at home in Pallet Town at a party/reunion with his friends. The party was to help cheer Ash up and congratulate him on getting so far into the league, but right now, Ash was simply looking out the window thinking.
He turned back around and looked at the party happening all around him. All of his friends were there. Misty, Brock, Dawn, May, Max, Iris, Cilan the list went on and on, even Gary had decided to come, Ash looked at all of his friends, but his eyes lingered on Misty who was currently talking to Dawn, most likely about Piplup or something close to that.
As Ash continued to look at Misty he felt Butterfrees and Beautiflies moving around in his stomach. You see, over his journey through Unova, Ash had gotten over his denseness and, believe it or not, had realized his feelings for Misty. Ash had planned to tell her after he won the Conference, but since he lost he had no idea what to do.
His eyes then went to Dawn. Out of all his traveling companions, Dawn was the closest to Ash. Ash then decided to ask Dawn for help, because she clearly knew more about this stuff than he did. He considered asking May for help, but she was too busy flirting with Drew. After they had gotten together you could hardly separate them from one another.
Ash walked over to Dawn and Misty and slightly overheard part of their conversation.
"-so you really think he likes me." Dawn asked Misty.
Misty rolled her eyes, "Of course he does, why wouldn't he?" Dawn looked doubtful. "Look, you need to tell him, we all know how he can be when it comes to romance."
Dawn giggled and Misty continued, "You just need to tell him that-" she stopped when she saw Ash, "Oh hi Ash."
Ash smiled in return, "Hey Misty, do you mind if I could talk to Dawn alone for a few minutes."
Dawn's eyes widened and Misty smiled in a way Ash couldn't recognize, "Why do you only need to talk to Dawn?"
Ash blushed and became a little nervous, "I-I I just need to ask her something important. It's kind of personal."
Misty walked away saying over her shoulder, "Take all the time you need."
Dawn turned her attention back to Ash, "So what do you need?" she asked curiously.
Ash looked around nervously, "Can we go somewhere else to talk?" Dawn blushed and simply nodded.
Ash led Dawn outside and to a large oak tree about 15ft away from his house. Dawn looked around curiously and turned back to Ash, "Okay, so what do you need to ask me?"
Ash took in a deep breath, "IneedadviceonhowtoaskMistytobemygirlfriend."
Dawn was taken aback, "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Ash replied, "I need advice on how to ask Misty to be my girlfriend."
Dawn's eyes widened in surprise, then she looked confused, "Well I can certainly see why you wanted to talk to me alone, but why are you asking me for advice."
After thinking a bit, "You're my best friend, why wouldn't I go to you?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay you got me, I was going to ask May, but she was too busy with Drew, and you know what would've happen had I gone to Brock for advice."
Dawn giggled at the thought. "So I'm guessing you like Misty?"
Ash nodded and he thought he could see a flash of hurt in Dawn's eyes, "Are you okay Dawn?" he asked with concern.
Dawn quickly responded, "I'm fine, no need to worry."
Ash thought she sounded a little sadden, but shook it off, "That's when a worry the most."
Dawn laughed and playfully hit Ash's shoulder, "Well, all I can offer you advice wise is to just tell her."
Ash turned away from her, "But what if she rejects me?" he asked her, feeling hopeless and probably sounded like it too.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and he heard Dawn's voice behind him "Sometimes, all it takes is 15-30 seconds of courage and you can do amazing things."
Ash felt confidence rise inside of him as Dawn's words sunk into his brain. Ash turned to Dawn, "Thanks Dawn you're the best friend anybody could ask for." Ash gave her a quick hug and started walking back to his house with Dawn following behind him, a small blush evident on her face.
Ash entered the house and the first thing he saw wasn't what he expected, Trip was talking to Misty. Ash walked over to them, "What are you doing here?" he asked in a cold icy voice.
"We invited him." Misty said to Ash.
Ash looked at Misty with a slightly angry look, "Why did you-" Ash stopped himself and took a deep breath to calm himself, "Never mind that's not important right now. Misty can I talk to you… alone?"
Misty nodded, curious on what Ash wanted to talk to her about. Trip walked away, but was still a close enough distance to hear what they were talking about. "So what do you need?" she asked him.
Ash grew nervous, unsure of how to say it, so he decided to just get it out, "Misty, we've been friends for a long time now, and lately I've ben having… different feelings about you." Misty began to panic on the inside seeing where he was going, she also noticed that more and more of the party guests started to watch what was happening "Misty, I think I love you and I would like to ask you to be my girlfriend." Ash sighed in relief happy to get it off of his chest. Mutters of astonishment reached his ears and he looked around to see that everyone (except Dawn) was surprised by Ash's confession and whispering about what Misty was going to say.
"Ash," Misty's voice was completely void of emotion and Ash started to worry, "I'm surprised that you discovered that you love someone, the fact that it's me surprises me even more."
Misty took a look around, but her gaze lingered on Dawn for a slit second. When she saw the heartbroken look in her eyes, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty, "But, I don't feel the same way."
Ash's eyes widened, "W-what?" Ash felt his heart begin to sink, "Why?"
"You're… you're… you're just not worth it okay!" Misty didn't mean to shout, but it just came out.
Ash took a few steps back away from Misty, "What do you mean?" his voice starting to tremble.
Trip smirked, "I think it's quite clear what she means," everyone turned to look at Trip, "You're not worth it because you're too weak."
Ash's mind reeled at the thought, "What you don't believe me?" Trip's taunting grin was eating away at the wall blocking his rage, and his words seemed to be like acid being thrown against it, "Well why don't you ask Misty, or all your friends?"
Ashes looked around at his friends, only to see that they all had uncomfortable looks on their faces, were shifting from foot to foot and refused to make eye contact with him. "You don't… actually believe him do you?" nobody answered.
Ash's heart began to sink more and more with every second. Misty walked in front of Ash and answered for everyone, "Actually Ash… we do believe Trip." Ash took in a sharp intake of breath as his heart shattered. Ash heard a mocking chuckle and he turned to see Trip starting to laugh at him, unable to hold back his rage he stormed over and slugged Trip's eye sending him to the floor.
Not wanting to look at his friends, he walked towards the door and opened it, "Where are you going?" Iris asked him. Ash said nothing, "He's such a-"
Iris was cut off when Ash sharply turned around, his eyes filled with nothing but rage, "DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" Thunder boomed outside as everybody was shocked and slightly scared of the tone of his voice, "Come on Pikachu." Pikachu glared at everyone with sparks coming out of his cheeks before running out after Ash before he slammed the door.
As Ash walked away from his house it started to rain. When the tears started flowing from his eyes he started running. Anger, sadness, and adrenaline keeping him going he kept on running until there was a large distance away from him and his so call 'friends'. When he stopped he was in a small clearing with some rocks of various sizes littering the ground .His thoughts were focused on how his friends could do this to him as tears once again stung his eyes, he picked up a quite large rock and threw it a good ten feet and yelled as loud as he could putting all of his anger into the shout, send several Pidgey to fly away in fear.
Out of breath he sat on a nearby rock, buried his head in his hands and started crying. Pikachu looked at his trainer in sadness and went to comfort him when he heard footsteps. He turned and prepared to launch a Thunderbolt attack when he saw who it was.
"Don't worry Pikachu, it's just me." Dawn said to try and calm down the Electric Mouse Pokémon.
"Pika pika?" Pikachu asked her in a suspicious tone.
"Pikachu I swear I had no idea that they were going to do that." Dawn tried to reassure him. "I just came to talk to Ash, just give me five minutes and I'll be on my way."
Pikachu examined the blunette for a bit, and then he came out of his fighting stance. Dawn walked over to the broken trainer, "Ash? Are you alright?"
Ash took his head out of his hands, stood up and looked at the coordinator, "Are you here to insult me too? To tell me I'm too weak to continue my journey" he asked in a cold tone, his voice slightly scratchy from the yelling.
Dawn shook her head, "No, I would never do that." Ash turned away from her as if he didn't believe her, "Ash, I'm your best friend, why would I think you were too weak?"
Ash grunted, "I thought they were my friends, and look what they did." He started to walk away, and Pikachu started to follow.
"Where are you going?" Dawn asked him.
He stopped and without looking back he said, "Away, I don't know where or for how long, just away. Don't try and talk me out of doing it, and don't try and follow me. I need to do this alone."
Ash waited for Dawn to try and convince him to stop, but she didn't, "Well if you're going away. Can I at least give you something before you go?"
Ash turned around towards the blue-haired and nodded. Dawn walked forward and took two things out of her bag. The first one was a small present wrapped in blue wrapping paper with a shiny sapphire blue ribbon; the second was an egg incubator with a Pokémon egg inside it, the egg was mostly colored white with the top of it colored green with one spot of pink. Dawn put the items into his arms.
Ash looked at Dawn, "Since the only Pokémon you're taking with you is Pikachu, I think you'll need another to get you started."
"What Pokémon is it?" Ash asked her.
Dawn simply smiled, "You'll have to wait until it hatches, but I'll give you a hint. We both worked together to save this Pokémon." Ash looked at the present before Ash could ask Dawn she was already talking, "This is for an occasion that we should've been celebrating today, but I seems that nobody remembered, not even you."
Dawn leaned up and gave Ash a kiss on the cheek, "Happy birthday Ash." Leaving him and Pikachu in a daze, she walked away.
When Ash came out of his daze, though a slight blush that dusted his cheeks was still evident. He put the Pokémon egg and the present in his bag and went to find the nearest Pokémon Center. When he got there he sat on a nearby chair and slowly unwrapped the present. There were three things inside. The first item was a scarf, when Ash picked it up it felt as soft as silk and felt just as warm, the color of the scarf was dark grey at one end, and as you got to the other end it faded to a silver color.
Ash put it down and picked up the next item he saw, it was a necklace. It was a golden medallion attached to a leather string to keep it around his neck. The golden medallion was rectangular shaped with a golden Pikachu surrounded by electricity designed onto the front. On the back there was a message engraved into the gold.
"To the best trainer I know. –Dawn"
Ash lowered the medallion and saw that the last item in the box was an envelope. He opened it and pulled out a contest ribbon attached to a note. Ash took the ribbon off the note and began to read.
"Dear Ash,
I'm so sorry you didn't make to the semi-finals, but you can always try again right. Yeah no need to worry. The ribbon attached to this note was the first ribbon I ever won. I thought you could use it as a good luck charm on your next journey. If you don't get very far during your next journey. Just remember, I will always be there for you, no matter what happens, I'll always be there. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Dawn"
Ash lowered the note and looked at the contest ribbon in his hand. His hand clenched around it as determination and confidence sunk deeply into his brain. "She must be a very special girl huh." A deep mellow voice said nearby.
Ash turned and saw two people, both around his age, and both of them were boys. One looked familiar, but the other different.
"Who are you?" Ash asked them.
The one that looked familiar to him pointed to the other, "His name is Clyde." He pointed to himself, "You already know who I am."
Ash looked confused, "Why are you here? I thought you would've been on your next journey by now."
"Normally I would have, but I had a feeling to go to stop by your place before starting, and when I got there. I saw what your friends did to you, and to answer your question. We're here to help you." Ash looked surprised, out of all the people he knew, this was the last person he thought would offer him help, "If you come with us, we can help you to become one if not the greatest Pokémon trainer in the world."
Ash looked at the two trainers, "Why? Why would you want to help me?"
He turned towards Clyde who stayed silent and motioned the other to continue, "You're tired of being pathetic, and you want to prove yourself." His emotionless faced cracked a small smile (or a smirk Ash couldn't tell), "Plus, Dawn seems to have left quite the impact on you."
Ash cracked a smile, "It's nice to see that you got her name right for once."
He shrugged, "People can change with time."
He walked forward and extended a hand towards Ash, "Are you willing to accept our help?" Ash looked skeptical, "I can promise you, that if you come with us. You will be able to prove that you're 'friends' were wrong about you, and that Dawn was right."
Ash looked down at the contest ribbon still clutched into his hand, then his eyes looked to the medallion and scarf, and he thought about the egg contained in his bag. Ash reached out with his free hand and shook his hand firmly.
Flashback end.
Ash opened his eyes as the flashback ended, another wind had started blowing, causing the scarf around his neck to fly like a flag behind him. "Five years, to the day, it's been five years since that day." Ash muttered to himself. Ash reached into his shirt and pulled out the golden medallion Dawn gave him.
Ever since Dawn cave it to him, he rarely took it off, a few weeks after receiving it he discovered that it could be opened, and ever since, at least twice a month. He would watch the sunrise and look at the medallion. Ash opened it and looked inside; there were three sections of the medallion. The left section had a picture of him, the right had a picture of Dawn, and the middle section simple had the message "No need to worry".
Ash heard footsteps behind him, considering he hadn't heard the person speak(or yell at him) yet he assumed it was Clyde.
Ash rolled his eyes, "I'm coming Clyde, no need to worry."
Clyde walked up beside him, his expression read, "Thinking again?" Clyde didn't talk much, but he still did a very good job of expressing himself.
Ash nodded, "Yes." Out of the corner of his eye, Ash saw Clyde gesturing to the golden medallion still in his hand. Self-consciously Ash's hand rubbed a contest ribbon that was pinned to his shirt right above his heart, "Yes… I was thinking about her."
-*X*x*X*-
And that's a wrap.
I hope you enjoyed this, remember it's my first story doing pearlshipping so go easy on me.
If you liked it, please leave a review.
Also I'm holding two contests.
#1: We know about Ash and Clyde, but who is the third person that's with them? Send a PM with your answer. The first three people to get it right will receive a special prize.
#2: Dawn gave Ash a Pokémon egg, but what Pokémon is inside it? Dawn gave Ash a hint on what Pokémon it was, but let's see if any of you can figure it out. Send a PM with your answer, and the first two people to get it right will receive a special prize.
This is W. R. Winters signing off.