A/N: I know, I've been gone for a while. Life and all that.
You guys can expect weekly updates again from now on. Hopefully.
#30 is some slight spoilers for season 2, and relies on a pun that doesn't quite work in English. Dawn's Japanese name is Hikari, which means light, for the few who might not have known.
Most everything else here, like the rest of this so far, is just my crazy little headcanon with little/no basis on actual specific events from the show. But I hope it's cute anyway :)
As always, your reviews are loved and appreciated. I'm still looking for 8 more prompts to fill up the Writer's Choice section at the end of the 100 list.

Only the Best Wishes
Lyraeon/Lyra Kamiya

26. Absence

It was the first time either of them had seen Ash cry.

There had been those quick tears at the corner of his eyes before, the ones he wiped away quickly, but those only came when he lost a battle, or sometimes after he hung up the phone from conversations with his mother.

The news report had been brief, and they'd been stunned to see him even pay attention to it. Ash never paid attention to the news - maybe the weather in Kanto, if it was on while they ate, but never anything else. But he had stopped talking, stopped even eating, and stared at the TV in the lobby for several seconds, before slamming his utensils down and storming away. Pikachu shared in Iris and Cilan's confused looks and skittered after, leaving them to look between each other and the TV.

Iris barely caught a glimpse of the black-haired trainer on the screen before the reporter came back on, but it was enough to make her gasp and leap up, scrambling past Cilan before he had a chance to follow.

Neither had bothered to question why, whenever he called his mom, it was only his mom. Why no one ever mentioned his father.

Finding Ash in his bunk, curled up and sobbing with his brow furrowed into a greater rage than either of them thought he was capable of, answered the question quite clearly.

The identity of the foreign champion in the report was unmistakable, even if his last name hadn't been Ketchum.

27. Expressions

To the untrained viewer, Ash Ketchum's face had only three modes: excited, confused, and full of food.

This was a gross misunderstanding, and only his companions seemed to know the nuances of his expressions.

Cilan knew the wide-eyed grin he got whenever there was a new food put in front of him, and the disgusted grimace on the occasions he turned out not to like the food - and the strained smile that followed as he tried, politely, to pretend it wasn't the case. He knew the frustrated pout Ash got when he and Iris fought, and the saddened one it changed into when he admitted - to him, not Iris, NEVER to Iris - that it had been his fault this time.

Iris wasn't as discerning, but she still knew the disappointment in his face when he lost a battle, and the way he'd try not to look at them over it, especially when he knew he could have planned better. And she definitely, definitely knew the coy look he got when he was about to steal a kiss from one of them, even if she didn't recognize that he'd learned it from her.

Then there was the expression they both knew, their silently agreed upon favorite. The way he swelled with pride whenever he won an important battle, or especially a badge – and the way that smile doubled as soon as he saw how proud they were, too.

28. Games

It was hard for Cilan to believe neither one had played Monopoly before, but they were both country kids so he wasn't entirely surprised. It was quickly starting to seem like they'd never played any board games before. But that was impossible, wasn't it?

Ash peered at the stacks of brightly colored play money Cilan was counting out, eyes growing wider with every new color. "...How do we play?"

Iris's mouth opened to throw her favorite insult, but she only got as far as, "You don't know?" before glancing back at the board and realizing, "Actually... I don't know either."

"You roll the dice, move your piece, and you can buy the space you land on. If someone else lands on it, they have to give you money."

"And then they get the space?"

"No, they pay you rent, you know, like a hotel room?

"Why would I want to stay some place that charged rent?"

"Can't I just put my piece on the edge? I'm the Lillipup, they sleep outside anyway." Iris held up the piece carefully, yipping for it at Axew, who hid back in her hair, not quite realizing the little pewter piece hadn't actually made the noise itself.

Cilan repeated in the back of his head that this would be a learning experience for them both – patience mainly, but math skills was quickly seeming like a possibility as well – and that it would be a nice change of pace from the loud, laundry-inducing games they normally preferred. "No, because that's not the rules."

Ash had started counting his stack of money, but looked boggled when he got past the hundreds and started needing to add twenties. "Why are there so many different kinds?"

"So you have change when you need to buy things."

"Can I buy pokeballs?"

He was in for a longer night than he imagined.

29. Kids

If there was one thing truly constant in Ash's journey through Unova, it was Iris's constant chiding about what a kid he was. It was gradually joined by his rebuttal – and her admission – that she was just as much of a kid.

The true children of the group, however, were Axew and Scraggy. The family rhythm of the group was interrupted only by the peculiar way the two's difference in species effected their big/little brother relationship; Axews were a much slower to develop species, and so it took only a few short weeks before Scraggy was acting as the "older" brother between the two.

Then came the day Scraggy evolved, leaving his big brother barely past knee-high on him, and in fact a little frightened by the memory of being kidnapped by the same species. Axew ran to cry in his mother's arms, both from the fear and from sadness that he hadn't been the first one to evolve – and much to Ash's surprise, Scrafty clung to him doing the same a moment later.

The two "parents" looked at each other with a soft smile, Iris reaching over to pat Scrafty on the head comfortingly while still holding Axew tight. "It's okay, you know. Evolved or not, you're still both just kids."

30. Light

From the moment she'd popped up behind him, Dawn's very presence had made Ash's eyes light up. There was an eagerness in his every action that, while not far enough from the norm to tip off anyone who knew him less well, set his two companions on edge. Ash was always friendly, but with Dawn he was downright uninhibited.

Just the same, with no good opportunity to ask him, or even each other, what his relationship with the infamous coordinator had really been, Iris and Cilan went through the afternoon and evening doing their best to be friendly with her as well. To their surprise, it was impossible not to be - the girl had so much poise and enthusiasm of her own, probably from years as a coordinator, that her charm was inescapable.

It took a while for Iris to escape from her chitchat that night so she could slip out the window of the room the two girls shared and down to Ash and Cilan's instead. "You!" she shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at her boyfriend's chest. "You said you'd never dated anyone before!"

Startled, he glanced over at Cilan, searching for a clue as to what the furious dragon trainer might mean. He offered Dawn's name in return, and Ash remained as dumbfounded as ever. "I never dated her though. I mean, I guess I kind of liked her, but..."

Iris threw a pillow at him and went back to the window, barely catching his words in time to not leap through it.

"...I was just so excited for one of my old friends to meet you two. And to show off how strong you've helped me become."

Iris huffed in annoyed defeat, teetering on the sill for a second. "...fine, I'll put up with her then," she finally snapped, disappearing back up the wall and leaving Ash to be consoled by Cilan.