Year 2009

Three months later-

Ash sat in the floor of her bathroom staring blankly at the pale blue walls, trying to recall why she was there as she recalled the events of two years ago when she had first come home again and flinched. You're not my child. Leave me alone you freak! I want my son! Where's Ash? What have you done with him? Her mother had not only yelled at her but had slapped her too before breaking down and crying.

Not even bothering to let her explain what had happened at first.

If not for the fact that Professor Oak, Misty and Brock had been there, watching, well... She might never have been able to tell anyone anything.

But then she hadn't exactly been well enough to talk in the first place. Not physically at least. And then there had been Picachu, standing just a few feet from her in his humanoid form, his long blond hair partially hiding the angry expression that had no doubt been on his face as he had reached out and grasped her arm and pulled her back away from her mom, friends and the Professor just enough so that if he went off on them and decided to shock them with his thunder bolt attack- she wouldn't suffer along with them while simultaneously wrapping her in his arms and hugging her as he glared at them.

No doubt thinking something along the lines of, 'How dare you- How dare you treat one of your own in such a way. Can't you smell her? She smells just like your young! She even resembles him. Why can't you see that?'

After all, Picachu had been caring for her ever since they had left the lab that had changed them so much. He'd even gone so far as to stay in his humanoid form to help provide her a little extra safety and security while seeing to it that they were both fed and that pokemon didn't disturb them. And seeing her mother and Professor Oak turn on her like they had without any explanation or reason too- simply hadn't sat well with the Picachu.

Reaching out blindly, she started to grasp the side of the bathtub and so that she could have pull herself up and away from the wall a bit when Picachu suddenly appeared in her line of sight.

He was in his human form again today despite having changed back to normal last night so that he could curl up with her on her bed and sleep for a bit like he used too, and grasped her small hand in his as he dropped down to his knees next to her and slipped an arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her forward so that her face was pressed up against the shirt that he had borrowed from Brock as he wrapped her naked body in a towel and then carefully lifted her up off of the floor.

And gently set her down on the bathroom counter so that he could grab another towel and started to dry her off as she tried to recall exactly what it had been that had landed them in their current situation of living with Brock.

Oh yeah.

It had happened after their return, on the same day that she had tried to explain things to her mom about who she was. Professor Oak and Brock had been watching her and Picachu who had both been sitting under a tree when a storm hit.

Finally unable to take the fact that they had left the two out in such dangerous conditions, they had gone outside and collected them and taken them to Professor Oaks where they had been told that they could stay if they had nowhere else to go. At least until the storm passed anyways. And sometime after that another pokemon running around the Professors lab had decided to cause mischief and had attacked both her and Picachu. She had gotten away with only minor cuts and bruises.

Picachu however had been another story altogether and had used up so much energy that he had reverted to his original form. Which was when the two astonished men had noticed something about Picachu. One of the brown stripes on it's tail had been wavy. Sort of like the stripe on the Picachu that Ash kept with him. And once they'd put that together, there had been a whole slew of questions.

Many of which Ash herself either didn't want to speak about or simply couldn't remember. After all, almost three years was a long time to be held prisoner. And nothing that had happened while in captivity had been pleasant for her or for Picachu. In fact, she bore scars from many of the experiments- not that she was going to say anything about that though. Especially since it wasn't really anyone's business.

However after Picachu had regained his strength, he had told him what he could after which Professor Oak had asked permission to run a blood test on the two of them to check and see if it was really them. Several hours later, he and Brock were practically gaping at the them while they had been grabbing some sleep.

The blood tests had indeed been a match. Distorted sure. But a match nevertheless.

And after telling Ash's mom and Misty of what Oak had found- Ash hadn't known what she expected from her mother... understanding perhaps- something more than being spat upon maybe? But after being told that her son was no longer a boy nor completely human anymore, the woman had flipped out and attacked Ash. Savagely beating the already mentally and physically fragile girl as she screamed for her mother to stop.

But referring to the woman as 'mother' had only upset her more and before any of them had realized what she was about, she had wrapped her hands around Ash's throat and was squeezing the life out of her. It was at this point that Picachu and the others had finally gotten over their initial shock and run to help her, knowing that if they didn't the woman would likely kill her in cold blood.

She had come so close to dying that day that Picachu had become totally enraged. So much so that he'd hauled her mother off of her and thrown her across the room where she'd hit the wall and started to slide down it when he was on her again. His palms slamming into the wall on opposite sides of her head as his lips peeled back from his teeth and he growled.

The sound coming out in a low rumble at first and steadily escalating from there until the entire room and everyone in it could hear him as his body began to throw off sparks.

He would have killed the woman if he had been alone.

Hell, he had wanted to kill her for what she had done to his partner. He'd wanted to kill her so badly that the very core of his heart and soul had ached to do so. But he refused to sink to her level, especially in front of the child she refused to acknowledge simply because she couldn't recognize her in her current state. Because unlike her...he would rather die than hurt his precious partner.

His Ash. His partner.

Male or female, these things made no difference to Picachu given the fact that his base form was that of an animal.

Ash was Ash. Just like he was Picachu whether he was in human form or not.

As soon as he was done drying Ash off, he scooped her up in his arms again and carried her from the bathroom to the bedroom where he laid her on the bed and quickly scanned the room before remembering to lock the door to the bedroom. Bounding across the spacious room, he did just that then pulled his shirt up over his head and unfastened his pants and slowly made his way back to his partner who was laying so, so very still on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

His heart aching in his chest just from seeing her in such a state, he sat down on the corner of the bed and very gently took one of her small hands in his and brought it to his mouth. His heart pounding in his chest as he did so. His dark brown eyes carefully taking in everything. Every pulse in her throat. Every breath. Even every time she blinked (if she happened to be blinking at all) as he waited for her to show some sign that it was okay for him to proceed.

She turned her head a little bit and looked at him as he placed her hand against his cheek and made a purring sound while leaning into her palm as she hesitated for a moment before asking in a low tone. "Do you need me?"

'Need' was simply not a strong enough word in his vocabulary to describe what he felt for her at the moment. Thanks to those damned scientists from back at the lab. After all since breaking out of the lab with his partner he'd discovered that his human self as well as his pokemon self were both very attracted to his Ash. And he wasn't exactly sure what to make of that. Part of him wanted things to be like they've always been. Before they were captured and changed. But he knew that that was a rather hopeless dream to have.

Especially when one considered that he was the first and last of his kind. Much like Ash was now the first and last of her kind. So part of him felt that it wasn't exactly wrong or out of place to feel towards her. She was his partner after all... So it only seemed logical to take things a step further.

He turned his head so that he was kissing her palm before he bothered to reply softly, adoringly. "I need you very much." But then she probably already knew that since she could read minds now, among other things. She probably only asked because she was trying not to read his mind without permission. And as much as he adored her for that, he couldn't help but think that she should just read his thoughts and get it over with. Even if he respected her for her self control it could get annoying from time to time.

Ash nodded her head slightly as Picachu leaned over her and kissed the side of her throat. Earning a little shiver from Ash before she quickly said, "Try not to keep me up all night."

"I make no promises." Picachu said against her skin as he nuzzled her neck before running his tongue along the slender column and claiming her lips hungrily. While skimming his palms along the bare skin of her arms and further up until he was cupping her face as he kissed her. Tilting his head slightly to the side, he deepened the kiss. Slowly exploring the moist cavern of her mouth, causing her to tremble beneath him slightly.

Pulling back after a moment or so, he looked down at her face, searchingly. Wondering if perhaps tonight wasn't the best time for this. And if so he should be able to tell from Ash's expression. However all he found was the faint tint of soft pink color in her cheeks and a strange glitter in her once onyx, now blue-violet colored eyes. "Is something wrong?" She asked him, her tone somewhat...insecure.

When she took that tone with him, even for the silliest of matters- it damn near broke his heart. Truly it did. But he could sort of understand her insecurities. Their relationship was in a strange place. Somewhere between romantic and...not.

Don't get him wrong, he adored Ash. He always had. And probably always would. But somewhere after everything that had happened at the lab, and back in Pallet Town with Ash's mom. Something had simply clicked between them. Something that neither of them had truly meant to turn out this way, but it had.

And neither could run away from it. Besides, as much as his Ash had changed, she was still the same too. Still stubborn and not terribly tactful in certain situations. But the kid still had heart. And an nearly limitless amount of love in said heart. Which still made her a pretty alright person to Picachu. Besides, they'd already slept together twice... Accidentally...

And as strange as it sounded, he simply wasn't the type to run out on potential responsibilities.

"Nothing's wrong," He said after a heartbeat or so as he reached up and smoothed her long damp hair back away from her face. "I was just thinking some." Like how we're supposed to be hitting the road again with Brock tomorrow to resume our journey. He'd be crazy to say that he wasn't worried about Team Rocket showing up at some point.

But thanks to Brock knowing everything that he had explained to him about the experiments and so on, the older teen now knew what dangers they would be facing again by going back out into the world. And from what Picachu had gleaned of things, the other male wasn't going to let Team Rocket or anyone else near Ash without breaking off a few limbs first.

Which Picachu supposed was a bit of a relief. Since it meant that Ash would have not only him but her human friend too just in case they got into trouble. And as for her appearance and name, Professor Oak had fixed that. Creating new travel documents, I.D's, and scraping together some money for food and board and such just to round things out evenly.

Ash retained her first and last name, while her papers made it appear that she was a cousin of her former, boy self.

A hand gently touched him on the chest, almost causing him to jump out of his skin while automatically bringing him out of his thoughts as he looked down at Ash again. She'd already tucked herself in and had made enough room for him to flop down beside her in his current form so that he could curl himself around her like she used to curl herself around him while sleeping at night, and smiled.

It was probably just as well that they didn't mess around tonight. They were leaving early in the morning and he didn't want her so worn out that she would collapse in the middle of the road. Cause how embarrassing would trying to explain that to Brock be? Sighing, he pushed some of his thick blond hair back from his face and then slowly and carefully lowered himself down until he was laying on his side next to Ash and wrapped an arm around her and closed his eyes.

Suddenly feeling more tired than he'd felt in a long time he dozed off with an ease that Ash envied as she lay awake for a while longer, just listening to the sound of his breathing.