A/N: We start the second half with GRASS as voted by you.
Shipping: PokéSilverShipper


One-shot 7: Sweet-Walking


Ash was back home in Pallet Town with Pikachu by his side. His Top Four finish was his best finish from the Lilly of the Valley Conference. He beat Nando, then Conway and beat his Sinnoh rival, Paul. His run ended against Tobias in the Semifinals. Finally, he returned to Pallet Town, back from Sinnoh and here in Kanto. "Check it out, Pikachu!" he huffed in relief. "We're back home." Pikachu was happy to be in Pallet, much to his disappointment that Brock or Dawn wouldn't join. To Ash, this was just a pit stop before going on a new adventure. As soon as he entered town, a call rang out. It was a chirping...of a Chikorita? The two turned to spotted the Leaf Pokémon coming their direction. "Chikorita?" Chikorita paw-pumped the air. "Why are you here? Did you not like Prof. Elm's lab?" Instead of answering, Chikorita led Ash and Pikachu all the way into Pallet Town and to Prof. Oak's lab. Why here?

"Help!" screamed a familiar male voice. Ash knew who it was.

"Khoury?" A thundering stampede shook the plains, making Ash find his herd of Tauros. The 30 of Ash's Wild Bull Pokémon ran wildly through the ranch, nearly running down any Pokémon in their path. That's when he spotted Khoury on one of the Tauros. "Hang on, Khoury!" What else could he do at the moment? Pray? "Torterra, I choose you!" Ash tossed his Pokéball and released the Continent Pokémon who roared. Either he timed it well or very badly because here came the Tauros! "Torterra, Rock Climb!" Torterra stomped on the ground, forcing pillars of earth to rise. The Tauros slammed into the pillars...which none fell. The pillars sunk back down into the earth and Ash raced to check up on his herd...and Khoury. "Is everyone all right?" Some of the Wild Bull Pokémon were out but the rest stood back on their hooves. Khoury was back on his feet and came to greet the hometown trainer.

"Thanks a lot, Ash! I didn't know what to do!" He panicked. Nothing to be ashamed about.

"Don't mention it. They go out and run wherever they like." That's when he wondered what happened that made the Tauros want to give Khoury an unneeded lift.

"It's my fault. Gible was getting some training for when we journey through the Orange Islands." Ash remembered the Orange Islands. It wasn't like a vacation since he dealt with the Orange Crew.

"I know what it's like down in the Orange Archipelago. You and Lyra are heading down there?"

"Nah, just me. I'm just heading there alone with Dad to attend a Breeder's Convention over on Navel Island. I invited Lyra but..." A frown told Ash that Lyra didn't want to go to the Archipelago. "She hasn't been feeling good and I've been stumped about what's ailing her." Lyra's sick. Ash had to know what made her feel under the weather.

"Is she in the lab?"

"No, she's at your house. Dad and your mom are watching over her. I just came over here to let Lyra rest." That was quite thoughtful. Ash and Pikachu decided to leave Torterra to Khoury as he headed for his house where Delia watched for her son. And here he came home.

"Ash!" she called. "You should be quiet walking in."

"Yeah, Khoury already told me," he replied as he and his Electric Mouse Pokémon entered. They and the mom saw Khoury's dad slumped on a sofa. Lyra was on a couch with a blanket over her entire body and a moist towel over her forehead. "What do we know?" Khoury's dad didn't appear to have much of an answer.

"Well, I wanna say she's got a bit of a fever and that's it," the father shrugged. "We took her to see a doctor but even he's stumped." Baffling. Not only did Khoury not know what's wrong with Lyra, no doctor had a way to treat her. All they could do was let her rest. "Maybe you know why Lyra's sick, do you?" Like Ash knew?

"Wish I could say. Then again, this isn't the same as taking care of a Pokémon." They needed a clarification when Lyra opened her eyes.

"A...Ash?" she weakly murmured. Hearing Lyra, Ash and the adults were alerted.

"Lyra!" the dad gasped as they huddled around her. Her eyes only focused on Ash.

"How's...how is Dane?" Ash knew that Lyra called Dawn by Dane. "Is she here?" Ash shook his head, no.

"She's back in Sinnoh," he replied. Lyra softly giggled, wary of her depleted health.

"Lyra, we were so worried about you!" Khoury's dad expressed. Unaware of her condition, she rose up.

"Whoa, take it easy!" Delia warned. Only then did she suffer weakness and fell back. Ash reapplied the wet towel onto Lyra's forehead, trying to ease any heat she's suffering.

"You shouldn't push yourself," Ash warned. Lyra sighed in defeat...without having to send out a Pokémon.

"I'm sorry," she whined. "I...I didn't mean to ruin anyone's day." Ash placed a hand on the girl's shoulder for comfort.

"Just rest and relax, okay?" Lyra nodded. Lyra turned to Khoury's father.

"You and Khoury can go on without me. I'll be fine here with Ash." The dad wasn't sure about her offer to stay while the males headed off to the Orange Isles.

"Are you sure?" he questioned. Lyra flopped another nod. "Okay. I'll let Khoury know. He won't be happy to hear about you missing out. You take it easy." The father walked out to advise the altered plans. That left the mother and son to tend to the ill female.

"So other than your friend in Sinnoh, what happened to Brock?" Delia wondered. Ash remembered just after arriving back in the Kanto Region.

"Brock headed home and is right now studying to be a Pokémon Doctor," he answered. "It's safe and sad to say but I believe our journeying days are over." So no Dane, no Brock... Anyone else? "I was gonna meet up with Prof. Oak to see about any regions I can travel to." He had plans to go to other places. Lyra thought that if she felt well enough to travel, she could go with Ash anywhere he wanted to travel.

"Maybe I can come with," she offered. Ash and Delia were a bit surprised. "I mean, when I feel better." It was a keen suggestion.

"We'll figure it out when the time comes," Delia responded. Lyra understood. Right now, she just needed to relax. When evening came, Chikorita was back with Lyra and Bayleef joined too. Meantime, Ash and Pikachu were soaking in the tub. Ash was still having a hard thought of accepting Lyra as a new traveling partner.

"I don't know if we really wanna take Lyra for a trip," he doubted. "I mean, she and Khoury are great friends on their own."

("Why not take both of them?") Pikachu optioned. ("When Khoury gets back from the convention, we can all go on a journey together.") That wasn't a bad idea. Ash seemed to like where his little Pokémon buddy was thinking.

"Good idea. That way, we'll all have a great time wherever we go." Done washing up, Ash snagged a towel to dry himself. "Once I PJ myself, I'm gonna check on Lyra." Ash exited the bathroom, entered and changed to his pajamas and then headed down to meet up with Lyra. Lyra was awake, petting her Chikorita with Bayleef watching. "How are you feeling right now?" Lyra turned to Ash with a little more energy than earlier.

"Well, much better than this afternoon," she scoffed. "Got word that Khoury and his dad arrived safely at Navel Island for the convention." That's good to hear. "To be honest, I'm a little confused." How could you be confused about good news?

"What do you mean?"

"Well...I wanna say I'm happy that Khoury and his dad are okay...but I'm also happy to be back by your side again. I mean...I admired you back in Twinleaf Town during the Johto festival and I wanted to travel with you. I think the reason I'm so baffled is because I want to be happy with you but I don't wanna lose my friendship with Khoury." Her rampant thinking strolled right into Ash's conversation.

"I know a way to fix that." Lyra became intrigued. "When Khoury comes back, we can all go on a journey together." It was as if Ash read her mind. Lyra was amazed.

"That's not a bad plan. Of course, there's no Dane or Brock to help out." Ash fluffed his own nod, unable to aid out those two now. An hour after that brief meeting, Ash had entered dreamland. He was snoozing through the night. On the couch, Chikorita was waving the leaf on it's head, waffling Sweet Scent throughout the room...and Lyra was the only one with the Leaf Pokémon. The Sweet Scent was caught in the flow of the air vents which bounced upstairs and into Ash's room. Unconsciously, she sat up and made Chikorita tumbled to the floor, rudely waking it up. She stood up and began walking up the stairs. Chikorita wondered if Lyra was okay. She was sleepwalking. She walked the jarred door open and got to Ash who was lying on the floor. The door opened so quietly, Pikachu wasn't alerted from the bedside. Lyra appeared to be talking...but no noise was coming out. Yet she looked panicked. She slowly collapsed onto her hands and knees, never awake. Someone was in for a rude awakening. Pikachu's ears heard the soft thuds and woke, spotting the sleepwalking Lyra put her hand around a head-turning Ash. Was Lyra going to kiss him? Choke him? Chikorita wanted to prevent anything happening to its master or Ash. Turned out, it wasn't necessary. Lyra opened her eyes to see Ash sleeping right there. She shook her head, thinking he wouldn't mind a sleeping mate. Quietly, she unzipped the sleeping bag and scooted right in, snuggling herself next to the raven-haired she met over at the Johto Festival. Chikorita and Pikachu sighed, feeling that they overreacted to what could have been a serious situation. The caw of Dodrio signified the morning sun. Delia was on the phone with Khoury.

"Why didn't you tell us about her condition?" she gasped.

"I thought that if her Chikorita was in it's Pokéball, it wouldn't be a problem," Khoury explained. What problem? And did it have anything to do with the Leaf Pokémon's Sweet Scent?

"Guess maybe I should have helped put Chikorita back in it's ball to prevent it, huh?" So it was the Sweet Scent? "Listen, be careful at that convention and we'll see you and your father back here in two days."

"We will. Take care, Mrs. Ketchum." Delia hung up and the Pokémon came down. Delia was happy to see them. "Good morning, Pikachu, Chikorita." The Pokémon greeted back to the mother. "I bet you're hungry. I did get your food ready before Khoury called me." The two feasted upon the pellets of food. Meantime, Lyra was waking to the rays of the sun and gazed at her sleeping mate.

'I don't want Khoury to join us,' she thought. 'I want to be you and me.' That's when she leaned down and...if this wasn't an indication that she was at full health, what else? It was like "Sleeping Beauty" with a role reversal. Feeling the kiss cutting off his air supply, Ash woke up and was surprised.

"LYRA?" he screeched with her tongue in his mouth. What kind of kiss was she doing to the poor Pallet Town's kid? Finally, Lyra broke away from Ash for him to breathe. Ash was stunned to see her in his bag, much less the kiss. "What are you doing in my bag?" Lyra blushed in some embarrassment.

"Sorry. I forgot to put Chikorita back into her ball. She has a tendency to sweep Sweet Scent when she sleeps...and when I get hit, I tend to sleepwalk to wherever that Sweet Scent goes." She follows Sweet Scent in her sleep. Pretty weird.

"Never knew you had an effect with Sweet Scent. Guess not everything is the same with humans in contact with Pokémon abilities." Lyra chuckled softly.

"Listen. I know Khoury's a great friend...but I want to be with you and you alone. I wanna be with you forever." She leaned down and gave Ash another kiss...this time more minded of how much air he could breathe. Ash didn't mind this and accepted the love check. Perhaps these two could be a great pair. By the way, Lyra...IT'S DAWN, NOT DANE!


END of GRASS
(7 down, 5 to go. Keep those votes up, if only to break up the tie between NORMAL, and GROUND.)