I do not own Pokemon

Pale Ash & Murky Waters
Chapter 1: Boring Towns and New Neighbors

May Maple sighed heavily as she felt the van's tires transitioning onto the dirt road. They were close – a little too much for her own comfort. The more she thought about their destination, the more regret she felt towards her past. She couldn't help the circumstances, and she certainly couldn't make do with them.

The move was too sudden for May to properly inform her old friends. Her father, Norman Maple, announced to their family about two weeks ago that he had landed a job in Hoenn as a Gym Leader. She was happy – ecstatic even. How could she not be – especially with her own father? But she couldn't handle the fact that she, along with the rest of her family, had to drop their current lives and come move with him.

His reasoning, as he told her, was that it was still close to home, and he would be able to provide more for the family.

The van ran over a pothole causing May to fall over from her box-seat.

She could handle the move. She could handle saying goodbye. But the real kicker was the fact that her father would be working 2 cities away from the house that she would be living in.

For as long as May could remember, she held her father very close and dear to her heart. She, in her much younger days, would often consider him a champion. There was not a day in her mind where she didn't see her father – save for the slumber parties she had with her friends.

However, as all humans age, May had matured and dropped the binds of adolescent attachment to safety and security. Soon came the phase of parental annoyance and juvenile separation.

Another pothole.

She held some sort of taboo against consorting with her parents for the majority of her teenage life; however, deep down, she wanted nothing more than to have both of them home when she would return from the prison society called 'school'. Now that was taken away from her.

May felt the van begin to slow to a halt. She mumbled a curse under her breath when the rumbling of the engine stopped and the front doors opened.

"Here we go," she whispered to herself as the movers opened up the trailer.

…

Littleroot: a town that cannot be shaded any hue. At least that's what the Hoenn Region's guide had said. May hopped out of the truck onto the dirt and gravel with particles of dust still roaming in the air. She looked around the area fighting the cough that was ascending in her chest.

Littleroot was a quiet town. Not noisy, bustling, or populated by the looks of it; though, that could be because of the early hour they had arrived. Perhaps it was the heat of the rising sun mixed with a salty humidity.

Either way, May concluded one fact from a simple look around: this town was boring.

"Perfect. Small town, nothing to do, no one to talk to, and nowhere to go. I bet there's no oddish here either," she spoke to herself. She was broken out of her monologue after hearing her mother call out to her.

"May! Come inside and see your room!" Said an oddly excited Caroline Maple.

"Alright. Let me just get my things…"

"Don't worry about that! Let the movers get it!"

May turned around and met the gaze of a blue, anthropomorphic reptilian carrying a box labeled 'May Maple' with a heart on top of it. There is a saying that goes, "It is better to stare into the barrel of a gun than into the eyes of a machoke," but May simply didn't care. It definitely wasn't the first time she challenged the myths of Pokemon dangers, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Without breaking eye contact, she came forward and grabbed the box out of the machoke's hands. She then supported the box under one arm while reaching forward to pet his snout to thank him for his services. He gave a low grumble and returned to his duties while May gave a small giggle.

She slowly walked towards the front door – glancing left and right at her surroundings. Right as she entered the door, she noticed a figure looking at her from outside a neighboring house.

"Honey, I thought I told you to let the movers take care of your things?" said a disheartened Caroline.

"I know, Mom, but I'd rather carry my more sensitive items myself," she argued dropping her volume near the end. A look of realization and then understanding found their way on Caroline's face as she realized just what was in the box.

"Mom! Where's my computer?!" the youngest child, Max, called throughout the house. Before their mother could even take a breath, May took this opportunity to mess her brother.

"Oh, Max, I forgot to tell you: Dad sold your computer to pay for the movers," she said without missing a beat. The house was silent for a good moment before the sound of soft, but heavy, steps were heard coming down the stairs.

Max entered the common area with a dreadful expression behind his thick glasses. The 10-year-old wore a green polo with black shorts and black sneakers.

"No he didn't," he stated, hoping he had said the truth. Seeing his expression was enough to satisfy May and she burst in a fit of laughter. Max, understanding that it was a prank, stuck his tongue out at his sister and ran outside to find his computer.

"Do you really have to be mean to him? You know, you should be lucky that you have a brother," Caroline informed her daughter; only, it wasn't the first time that May had heard this speech.

"I know," she grudged at her mother, "'1 in every 3 people in the world is an only child.' I said it back then and I'll say it again: those numbers aren't luck."

"Neither was being able to move in this lovely neighborhood," Caroline distracted herself. May took this opportunity to head to her room and set down her things. Pushing open the door, she nearly vomited at the remnants of the last inhabitant.

Pink had covered nearly every square inch of the place. The walls, carpet, sheets; even the ceiling fan was pink. The only object that could distract her from this pink white-room was the brown desk in the corner. Luckily, the old owners left it here for May. It was a nice desk; nothing too extravagant and certainly not dull. However, it provided a nice – or the only – change of pace for the design of the room.

She sighed as she set her personal box on the bed; she dared not take a seat due to the unknown aspects of what had happened on those sheets before. Looking at the clock on the wall, she noticed that it did not match with the time on her Pokégear.

'Here's to starting a new life,' she thought as she pushed the button on the back, consequently starting the clock after it had been corrected.

"May," her mother called, "I was thinking, for dinner, we could have… pink," she blurted obviously. She looked around the room and squinted her eyes as if she was looking into a bright light.

"Makes you wanna hurl, right?" May asked.

"Well… after some repainting and a little bit of alter-interior decorations, this room will be more appealing to the eye. Anyways, I was thinking that for dinner the three of us could go out to one of the local diners. Sound good?" Caroline asked, hoping it would give May a chance to meet some people instead of moping around.

"So Dad's not coming with us?" she assumed correctly to Caroline's misfortune.

"I'm sorry sweety, but your father is trying to settle the deal with the Petalburg mayor."

"He didn't do that before we moved?" May asked accusingly.

"This is something else. Now that he owns and maintains the gym building, he should ensure that it's in proper working condition."

May sighed, "I think I'll pass, mom." Caroline looked at her daughter with a knowing look.

"Alright, but if you're not going to come along with us, then I want to introduce yourself to one of our new neighbors today," she gave the ultimatum.

"Mom?!" May complained.

"No buts! I want you to meet some people in your youth. Go out; have an adventure. It's how I met your father," Caroline said with a wink before she left the room and shut the door. "I'll order a pizza for you, is that alright?"

"…Yeah," May replied, "it's alright." The teenager sighed with despair as she wondered who to visit. Before she could do that, however, she had to shower and change; a 12-hour ride in the back of a van surely wouldn't impress anyone.

"I see a dust trail following an old red Nova
Baby blue eyes your head on my shoulder…" May sung softly as the steamy water hit the back of her neck. It was her friend, Jimmy, that introduced her to the Age-Music Genre. This particular genre in music was a collection of recovered hits from the past that had been lost in the great war.

Jimmy's favorite subgenre was an old one called 'country.' Their sound, along with many other old-country artists, were made popular 40 years ago in Johto and Unova, but remained unknown – for the most part – everywhere else. Including Hoenn. May couldn't say she was a big fan – or a fan at all – of country, but she couldn't deny she liked the melody of the song.

"May, your singing is horrible!" Max yelled from behind the door. Shocked from the high-frequency volume out of nowhere, may threw her bottle of shampoo at the door which had successfully scared her little brother away.'

"Can I ever shower in piece?" May asked herself. After rinsing the soap and shampoo from her body, she grabbed the white towel hanging on the rack just above the toilet. She wrapped it around herself and looked into the mirror. Sticking her hand out, May wiped a portion of the mirror's steam away to get a good look at herself. What took her attention from everything else were her breasts. For some reason, she always felt uncomfortable about them. Some days she would think them as too small, others she would think them as too large.

She gave both a gentle squeeze and chuckled at herself. "How you and Dad met, huh?"

May walked to her room with her towel in a vice grip to prevent her perverted little brother from trying to remove it from her body. Luckily he had been too preoccupied with arranging all his things in his new room. May went inside her own and shut the door, locking it behind her back.

May was now staring at three boxes, her personal box, her box of clothing, and the box that held all the memories she had before her move. Knowing she would get to the latter one later, she opened the personal box and retrieved a set of matching underwear. As she pulled her panties up to her thighs, she was looking at the light on the ceiling, or rather, where there should be one. May didn't care, there was still light in her room. That was all that mattered.

However, when she began to place her bra on her chest, she slowly turned her head to that mysterious source of light: the window. Straight out from that window, was a balcony on the house adjacent to this one. On that balcony was a teenage boy, no younger than 16, leaning on the rail with one hand on his chin. He couldn't have looked more bored.

That is until he decided to look through May's window and catch a peek of her in her underwear. The young man took a few seconds to process while May did the same. Finally, after ample time of looking at each other, the boy widened his eyes and mouthed something before proceeding to step back. Unfortunately, his mother, who was behind him, startled him off the balcony and on to the ground with a thud. May immediately shut the blinds on her windows to prevent any peepers or confusion with that boy's mother.

While she was embarrassed and certainly had a few words to say to that pervert, one thing was clear in her mind: she knew which neighbor she was going to be visiting.

"Alright Mom, I'm going out," May called from the front door.

"Wait! May! Max! Come here!" Caroline yelled from the living room. Thinking it was some sort of emergency, May rushed to the living room. She was let down by the fact that her mother was referring to the program on the TV. "They're showing the Petalburg Gym! Maybe your father will be on," she suggested hopefully.

"We bring you this report live from the Petalburg Gym!" the reporter said before cutting back to the news room.

"Oh," Caroline said with disappointment, "You just missed him. So, where are you going?" she asked her daughter.

"To the neighbor's house to introduce myself," May said with annoyance.

"Really? Oh, let me come with you-"

"Mom, you're going to meet people this evening. Let me go by myself" she argued.

"Alright, alright. What's with that outfit?" her mother asked. May wore a comfortable, red, dry-fit shirt with white shorts over black spats. Her long hair was tied into a bun in the back with her bangs over the side of her head.

"It's hot and humid here, so I'm dressing comfortably," she drudged. The bandana on her head tied into a bow was an added feature only for cosmetic appearance.

"Oh, well you still look cute. Have fun and tell me all about it when you get back," she said with her standard cheerful expression. May simply sighed and walked out the door.

"15 years old and she still calls me cute," she whispered to herself with annoyance. Nevertheless, she still had a goal in mind: to give that peeper a piece of her mind. She took a deep breath and made her way to the house next door and knocked.

"Coming!" an older woman said from inside. May took another deep breath and put on the best fake smile she could.

"Hello," she greeted when the door open. On the other side was a woman with the ideal image of a mother. When she noticed her guest, she smiled warmly.

"Ah, you must be the new neighbor! Hello, I'm Catherine Birch," she said with bubbly cheer as she stuck her hand out for May to shake.

"May Maple, it's nice to meet you."

"Yes I feel the same. Come in!" Catherine held the door open for May. She wiped her shoes on the mat and stepped inside, overwhelmed by the intoxicating aroma of cooking meat.

"Wow, that smells great," May complemented, "What's the occasion?"

"You haven't heard? Oh, well I supposed you just got here too. Anyways, everyone in town is making a potluck for you guys, the new neighbors. It's a tradition here in Littleroot."

"Really? Just for the new neighbors?" May asked, a little overwhelmed by the large gesture.

"Why yes, here in Littleroot, everyone is practically family. So much that you can just walk into someone's house without knocking." May was caught off guard by the little tidbit of information.

"Isn't that kind of… rude?" she asked without intention to throw an insult.

"Not here it isn't. I suppose you want to meet the rest of the family too. Let's see…" Catherine trailed off with her thumb and index finger on her chin. She tried to remember just where the other two in the house had gone off to. Thanks to her memory, she was quite forgetful at times.

"Oh yes," she continued, "My husband, Thomas, is in his lab and Brendan, my son, is up in his room. You should go talk to him. He doesn't have many friends, so someone in his age group is sure to make him surprised."

As funny as May thought it was, she deplored the act of Catherine revealing personal information to someone she just met. If anyone understood the troubles of teenage adolescence more than anyone, it was May. In fact, hearing that made May pity her peeper more than want to strangle him.

"Thank you, I'll go say hi to him now," she said to avoid hearing any other personal secrets. "Mothers," she scoffed. May made her way down the hall and up the stairs towards a room with its door cracked open. Light from the sun's rays seeped through it and illuminated the hallway and stairwell barely.

May took another deep breath and knocked on the door, only for it to swing open and reveal an empty room. She was surprised, his room was oddly clean for a boy; everything was organized in a neat and tidy way and there was hardly a speck of dust on the furniture. It was almost too clean for her liking.

From how Catherine had been acting, it wouldn't surprise her too much if Brendan was really a ghost and his mother was just coping with loss. However, it wouldn't serve her any purpose if she came over to rant at a peeping ghost.

"Hey," a voice called from behind her. She jumped and turned around towards the source – which happened to be the same boy that was on the balcony. "Who are you; what are you doing here?" he asked her menacingly. He wore a red and black dry-fit shirt with black jeans and – strangely enough – black shorts over the jeans. His most distinguishing feature was the white hat on his head. One wasn't careful, they could mistake it for his hair. May had felt a bit threatened by his demeanor and froze on the spot.

"I-I… Uh… I just came by t-to… hi?" she said awkwardly. Brendan was unfazed, leading May to take the initiative and calm herself down. "My name is May Maple."

"May Maple? Wait a second… Maple… Oh right! You're one of the new neighbors!" He realized joyfully.

"Mmhm," May sounded, hoping that he would get the hint.

"Well, nice to meet you. I'm Brendan," he said while scratching the back of his head and looking out the window. Looking outside, a thought came to his mind and his eyes widened. He turned back to May who had an impatient smile on her face – almost as if she was waiting for his specific reaction.

"Oh my- you're that… Geeze I am so sorry-"

"Are you now? Most boys your age would consider themselves lucky," May scolded coldly.

"No, that's not what happened! I swear!" He tried to reason with her.

"Humor me," May challenged.

"Okay. Well, I was out on the balcony thinking about what I'll be doing in about a month and then… you appeared," he explained. Though, what he meant, and what May understood, were two very different things.

"Excuse me?" May asked, unsure if she had heard correctly. "Did you say what I think you said?" she asked, her temperament becoming very short.

"What? Oh, shit. Dammit! Look, I didn't mean it that way! It's just you caught me off guard, and your inn my room, and you think I was staring, and you're pretty, and I got a lot of things on my mind…" He stopped when he realized that not only as May unimpressed, but what he had said to her as well. He took a deep breath and began again.

"Look… I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let's just… start over. Sound cool?" He asked her with his hand outstretched.

May thought for a moment and decided that it was for the best. She extended her hand and shook Brendan's. "May Maple," she reintroduced.

"Brendan Birch," he said with a smile; one that May was fond of.

"So you're the famous Professor's kid?" May asked. Brendan laughed and shook his head.

"If I had a pokemon for every time I was associated with his legacy… Yeah I'm him," he said.

"What's it like? You do a lot of field work?" May asked while plopping down on his bed for what would be a very long conversation for two people that had just met each other.

"…Wait… so you… hahaha… your dad tried using a rock-smash on a graveler?" May asked hysterically, unable to contain her laughter.

"Yep. And then he ran away as soon as he could," Brendan continued his memory.

"But wait… where were you?" May asked, tears of laughter streaming from her eyes.

"Where do you think?" Brendan suggested with raised eyebrows. That was the moment that he lost May to laughter. For a solid 10 minutes she rolled on and off his bed laughing hysterically at his past misfortune.

"Hahaha! Oh… oh that's so funny," she commented as she began to calm down.

"Definitely wasn't one of our finest moments together. I stopped talking to him for about a week… It just goes to show what a clumsy guy he is."

"No doubt about it… no offense," May corrected at the end. Brendan waved it off as friendly talk and continued.

"Yeah, he'll probably miss the potluck again this year, for you guys," he said sadly as he looked upwards.

"Isn't he in his lab right now?" May asked, confused at his demeanor.

"Is that what Mom told you?" Brendan asked. The lack of response told him all he needed to know. "Yeah, my dad does that often. Somedays he'll go to the lab and, out of nowhere, leave on a 2-day fieldtrip. He only tells me, but I'm not sure why."

"Well, at least he's around and tells you things," May contradicted.

"What do you mean?" Brendan asked. It didn't dawn on May that in the three hours the two had talked, she hadn't told him just what kind of relationship her and her father shared. However, as soon as she went to open her mouth, Catherine barged in; startling the two.

"Hey Brendan, are you ready to go yet – oh my goodness," she said startled when she noticed that May was still here. "I'm sorry May, I didn't know you were still here. Anyways, are you two coming to the potluck?" She asked the two. Both looked to each other in some sort of telepathic conversation that the elder woman couldn't understand. Both nodded when they came to the same conclusion.

"Thank you Mom, but-"

"I would love to Mrs. Birch. I'm dying to see how that pot roast of yours has fared," May finished, interrupting Brendan. It seemed that she had said the perfect sentence for Catherine.

"Oh, it's really no big deal, but thank you May. Really."

As soon as Catherine left, Brendan looked back at May with an expression that read, 'What was that?'

"What? I like to eat."

a/n

And thus, I publish the beginning to my third story. Any thoughts?

Glory to Alexander