Dear Ash

"Hmm…Let's see..." May started to scratch the side of her head with the bottom end of her pencil; she was inside her tent and sitting at a small table she had set up for herself. She had a small piece of paper placed on the table in front of her and a pencil in her hand; she was busy trying to think of something to write on the paper. So far, she had written at the top of the paper 'Dear Ash', so it was obvious that she was writing something to give to Ash. However, she had run into that infamous hurdle known as 'Writer's Block', meaning that she was having trouble trying to think of things to write on the paper.

As May was trying to think, Max poked his head into the tent to see her sitting at the table and walked over to see what she was up to, slowly stepping over so he was standing beside her. "Hey, May. What are you doing?" he asked.

May turned her head to see Max beside her and nearly jumped from alarm out of her seat before she quickly covered the top of the piece of paper. "It's n-nothing you need to worry about, Max!" May blurted. Max showed an expression of suspicion before he leaned over to see what May was up to, while May pulled the paper away from him. "Can you please leave? I'm trying to focus here!" May complained.

"I want to see what you're doing there!" Max said as he moved back and forth between the table, trying to see what May was writing as she continued to move the paper away from his glance. "Well, you don't need to! This is something private I'm trying to work on here!" May retorted; she didn't want Max to see what she was up to. Before she had a chance to relax, Max grabbed the paper away from her so he could have a look at it for himself.

"Max, give that back! I was using that!" May snapped, showing an expression of irritation. Max looked at the paper in silence for a few seconds before he turned back to May with a smug smile on his face, which prompted her to stare at him in surprise. "What? Why are you smiling at me like that?" she asked.

"So…this is for Ash, huh?" Max cheekily asked. May nearly jumped out of her seat at this comment, and quickly grabbed the paper away from Max and placed it back on the table, looking away from him with an expression of embarrassment; she dreaded having to hear what Max was going to say upon seeing what she was up to. "You're writing a letter to Ash?" Max asked, poking his head behind her.

"Maybe…why does it matter to you?" May asked in response, refusing to turn her glance to him; she didn't want him to start making fun of her once he learnt why she was doing this.

"Oh, no reason…I was just interested to see what you were doing. I didn't think that you'd be writing something to Ash. Unless… do you like him?" Max cheekily asked. Max nearly jumped out of her seat again upon hearing that question and she could feel her cheeks start to glow bright red; she was keeping her glance away from Max so he wouldn't notice her.

"No… of course not! What gave you that idea?" May quickly asked. Max walked over to her, showing a smug smile as she covered her face with her hands to try and hide her blush, but her efforts didn't seem to be successful as Max noticed anyway.

"I can see your face, May. You've gone red all over!" Max teased, before he started to burst out into laughter. May let out a sigh of annoyance knowing that Max hadn't been fooled at all, so she lifted her hands from her face before turning back to the desk she was writing on. "Let me guess: you've finally figured that you have a crush on Ash, right?" Max asked, walking over to May with a bright smile on his face. May turned her head to him and simply nodded; that was indeed the case.

"Yeah, that's right. I want to tell him upfront, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to have the right words to say. So I figured that I'd write them down for him, but that's proving to be harder than I planned too." May explained, showing an expression of annoyance at her own inability to properly express her feelings for Ash. She then let out a sigh of dismay before turning back to Max. "I have a lot that I want to tell Ash, but I have no idea of where I want to start. There's so much I want to say to him, but I don't know how to say it properly. Oh, what's a girl to do?" May sighed, placing her arms on the desk before placing her head in her hands in dismay; this was a lot tougher than she imagined it would be.

Max looked down to think upon hearing his sister's dilemma, wondering what he could do to help her, and then a smile crossed his face as he had an idea. "May, take a bit of a tip from me: don't think too much about what you want to write, or you'll just give yourself too much to worry about." Max suggested. May turned her head to Max with an expression of surprise, wondering what he meant. "Start small: think about you want to say little by little, so that way it'll make things easier for you. I'll leave it to you from there; I know you won't want me stepping into your business when I'm supposed to." Max explained, before turning and making his way out of the tent leaving May by herself again.

May then turned her attention back to the paper in front of her and started to tap her chin with her pencil, thinking over Max's words. "So I should think about what I want to say bit by bit, so I won't have as much trouble…" May quietly commented. After taking a few seconds to think it over, a bright smile slowly crossed May's face as she could feel the gears in her head starting to click again. "That's it!" she happily said to herself as she snapped her fingers, having now figured out what she could write. So without any hesitance, she quickly got to work with writing, paying close attention to what she wanted to say; she had a feeling that Ash was now really going to like it once she was done.

Sometime later, May poked her head out from her tent and looked around to see if Ash was anywhere near the site yet. "I guess he's not back yet… That gives me time to give him this." May commented to herself, holding her now complete letter in her hand, folded in half. She then looked at it with a bright smile, taking a few seconds to see what she had written; she felt really happy with the way it had turned out.

"May! You here?" May nearly jumped with an expression of surprise, turning her head back and forth to see who that was, before she looked to see Ash walking over with Pikachu sitting on his shoulder, and a bright smile crossed his face when he saw her standing here. "Hey, May! Great to see you still here." Ash commented, with Pikachu waving to her with a matching smile. May nearly jumped and then showed a nervous smile.

"Oh! Hi, Ash. I was just about to go look for you." May said, turning her glance down holding her letter tight in her hand. Ash showed an expression of surprise upon seeing the paper in May's hands and then looked up at her.

"What have you got there, May? Have you been busy writing something?" Ash asked. May quickly turned her glance up to Ash with an expression of shock, and then she slowly nodded. "Hey, that's great! I didn't know you liked to write as well. Could I have a look at what you've got so far?" Ash asked, showing a bright smile.

"Uh… okay." May nervously replied, before showing the letter to Ash. Ash then grabbed the letter from May's hand and unfolded it to have a look at what she had been busy writing while he was out training. The letter was written with the following words:

Dear Ash,

I bet you weren't expecting me to write this to you, huh? Truth is, I wanted to tell you this from mouth, but I couldn't think of what to say, so I had a feeling that writing it down would make things easier for me.

There's something I've wanted to say to you for a while now. During the time we've been travelling together, I've really had a lot of fun with you. I know I won't forget everything you've done for me; supporting me and helping me train to get ready for my Contests.

I really want to thank you for all of that and I've enjoyed all the travelling we've done together so far. I know that there'll be more awaiting us, but I thought that now would be a good time to say this.

Ash, I've started to see you as more than just a friend. I don't exactly remember when I started to feel this way for you, but I've felt like this for quite a while. Meeting you has been something I'll never forget, and I think that had it not been for that, I don't think I would have come as far as I have now.

You've been a true inspiration to me; you've helped me out through the most difficult of situations, and you've kept me going when there were times where I felt like giving up. That's something I know I won't forget anytime soon.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that… I love you, Ash, and I want us to enjoy the rest of our journey together not as friends, but as a couple. I understand if it's something you don't want, but I wouldn't dream of anything else.

Thank you for everything you've done for me,

May Maple

Ash stared at the letter in silence before turning his head up to May, who was showing a shy smile and a bright blush showing on her cheeks. "So, what do you think, Ash?" she asked. Ash looked down at the letter for a few seconds before looking back up at May as she was waiting for his answer.

"Do you have a pencil with you?" Ash asked. May nodded in agreement before showing the pencil she used to write the letter. Ash grabbed it from her before writing something on the bottom of the paper while May watched in surprise, before he looked up at her with a smile. "You can read what I wrote." Ash said, before handing her back the pencil and paper.

May then looked down to see what it was that Ash wrote:

May,

I've enjoyed all the time we've been travelling together as well. And if I'm being honest… I've felt the same way for you too, but I haven't been able to figure out how to tell you because I wasn't sure of what you would say.

But knowing that you feel the same way is something I feel really happy about. And about spending the rest of our journey the way you want, that's something I'd like more than anything. I guess that means we both want the same thing, doesn't it?

May stared at Ash's writing in shock before looking up at him with a bright smile. "You really mean this, Ash?" she quietly asked, still in awe that Ash wanted the same thing that she did.

Ash simply nodded with a bright smile. "Of course I do! And I wouldn't want it any other way." he replied. Pikachu showed a big smile seeing this before nodding in agreement. "(Neither would I!)" he cheerfully agreed.

May's smile quickly grew larger upon hearing this, and then she jumped up in the air in excitement. "Yay, this is amazing! Ash, thank you so much!" May excitedly cheered before throwing her arms around him tightly. Ash stared at her in silence before a big smile crossed his face and he reciprocated May's hug; it was worth it to see May this happy.

'I'll need to thank Max later when I see him.' May thought to herself; his advice had really paid off for her, because it had gotten her exactly what she had been struggling with, and it had helped her say what she wanted to say.