Keeper
by Cyberchao X

A/N: Naming this fic was probably the hardest part…well, actually, there could be a number of hard parts in keeping up momentum given that this is a major violation of my rules about not working on fanfics at odd hours of the morning.

Prologue—Master Class Tournament

"Serena? Can we come in?" Ash asked, Clemont and Bonnie at his side.

"Go away!"

"Serena, I know exactly how you feel. Losing at the highest level, when you're so close to your goal, it's awful. I've been knocked out just three wins away from a championship three times, and once I even got to the semifinals, back in the Lily of the Valley Conference. Please…let me in." Serena didn't respond.

"Will you at least let me in?" Bonnie asked, and Serena consented to open the door. "There you go. She's all yours, Ash."

"Bonnie!" Clemont scolded, and Serena turned red.

"Bonnie, that wasn't very nice, trying to trick Serena. She let you come see her, so go see her; talk to her," Ash said. Bonnie reluctantly did so.

"…Afraid to let Ash see you cry?" Bonnie asked.

"Not afraid. Just…I'm a mess right now."

"Ash is really worried that you're taking this loss hard. He doesn't like seeing you sad."

"Really?" Serena blushed again.

Bonnie nodded. "As dense as the boys are, Ash might not even know it, but I think deep down he might like you too."

"B-Bonnie…!"

"What? It's obvious how you feel about him. And I think with enough time, you two could be really happy together."

"…You really think so?"

"Yeah!" Bonnie said, and Dedenne voiced what seemed to be agreement. "So why don't you stop moping and let Ash see you!"

"…Okay."

A couple minutes later, Bonnie exited. "Okay, your turn for real now," she said.


An uncomfortable silence pervaded the room.

"…Well?" Serena asked.

"There's not really much I can say here. Losing is the pits, and nothing I say will change that. And I've had some painful losses. There was my first league challenge, back home in Kanto, when Charizard was still disobeying me frequently and ended up refusing to battle, costing me the match. In Sinnoh, there was this guy steamrolling the tournament with legendaries—even though I lost in the semifinals, most people consider me to have been the #2 finisher in that one because I was the only one who even managed to make Tobias send out a second Pokémon. That was rough. And in Unova, I was up against this total space case, didn't even realize that it was supposed to be a 6-on-6 battle and only brought 5 Pokémon, and I still lost. So trust me…I know all about losing."

"Ash…"

And then, much to her surprise, Ash had his arms around her. "You didn't want me to see you cry, did you? Well, it's fine. Let it all out."

"Um, Ash, I…"

"…Look on the bright side. If you were Kalos Queen, we'd have to go our separate ways when I go home to Kanto. You'd have your duties to worry about, after all, and you'd have to stay in Kalos. But since you're just another trainer on a journey, there's no reason you have to stay in your original home region, right?"

"Well, no…" She turned red, and in clear view of Ash. "Are you…inviting me to join you on your next trip?"

"If it gets that far, yeah. But before I go off to a new region, I've got lots of old friends to visit back in Kanto. And probably a few in the other regions, too…Unova's a bit out of the way, but I've got some friends in Sinnoh…and Hoenn! Heh, I bet by the time I get back, Max will be starting out on his Pokémon journey. He'd be about the right age now." Serena looked at him quizzically. "You know, Pokémon Showcases are a lot like the Pokémon Contests that they run back in Kanto and Johto and Hoenn and Sinnoh. You could probably become a Pokémon Coordinator." "And traveling with a coordinator is probably the easiest way to track down May, and possibly Dawn as well," he thought.

"Pokémon…Coordinator?"

"Perhaps we should stop off in Hoenn first. I wanted to head straight home to Pallet Town and probably then visit Pewter and Cerulean Cities, but I think that if I'm bringing you to the Grand Archipelago it might be best to head to Petalburg first.


A/N: That's the thing about fanfictions…you never know which way they're going to go. This chapter was mostly to set things up while they're still in Kalos—presumably, if it follows the example set by Hoenn and Sinnoh, Ash hasn't even challenged the Kalos League at this time, but we're going to skip right on ahead to Poképan after this. And yeah, it was tough to come up with a name for the collective of the four regions set in Japan analogues other than "Poképan", but I figured since the real Japan is an archipelago as well, "Grand Archipelago" is as good a name as any for the aggregation of the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions. And as alluded to here, it was originally just going to head to Kanto, but as much as this may be an Amourshipping fic, it's also a way of showing the slow passing of time. I mean, it's obvious that the series doesn't have negative continuity, so Ash must be aging slowly. Well, until next time, this is Cyberchao X, signing off.