Hey guys. I really don't want to give anything away from this chapter, so read it and please enjoy!

-StartersoverLegends

Chapter 8: Turn Around

Time froze in the large dome-shaped room while Ash Ketchum's eyes rested on May as she stood on the other side. She was over by the punch table scanning through the crowd, looking for Ash- although he didn't know it. He had to regain his composure quickly, having nearly choked in surprise at first seeing May in her dress. The pinks and whites of the overhead lights backlit her hair and seemed to make her dress shimmer before him. The dress… well, as far as Ash was concerned, seeing May in it was the most beautiful thing he had ever witnessed. Feeling the familiarity of their first encounter, Ash's eyes were glued to her, mouth slightly hanging open as he took her in. She wore her hair down, without her signature bandana on, something that greatly attracted Ash. The dress itself was strapless, leaving her shoulders exposed right above the brim of the dress. Another thing that stuck out to Ash was the fact that the dress looked tailor-made to May's size. It fit perfectly, allowing him to make out (And inevitably gawk at) her curves, while still having enough shape to look formal like all of the other dresses in the building. Nothing else mattered for a moment as Ash observed the angelic girl that waited for him. He suddenly shook his head to snap himself out of the trance that May had yet again thrown him into.

She's… perfect. Ash thought to himself. And I'm supposed to tell her how I feel. He gulped and felt his face grow hot as a sinking feeling arose in his chest. He had never been so nervous- not even as he battled in the Kanto League with thousands of people watching. He knew that she had to look a thousand- no- a million times better than he did, and felt his regained confidence shatter. Just as this happened, a girl that looked about a year or two older than May walked over to her. The two smiled and hugged, implying that they knew each other.

"Who is she?" Ash asked himself out loud as the two talked and admired each other's dresses.

"She," Ash heard from beside him, "Is my date."

Ash looked over to see a boy about Brock's age standing beside him and gazing over at the two girls with a smile on his face. Ash realized that he must have been too taken by May's beauty to have even noticed the stranger as he walked over.

"Oh." Ash said, looking back over at the girls.

"So I take it that you know the other one, then?" The boy said.

"Yeah," Ash started. "We've been traveling together for a few days, now."

"She's very beautiful," The boy said modestly. "I guess we both got really lucky, huh?"

"Well, we aren't dating or anything." Ash said, looking over at him again. "We're just friends." Ash scolded himself in his head as he said it, seeing as he and May were way past that now.

"Oh, sure." The boy said sarcastically, a mock-smile on his face.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked with a hint of a challenge in his voice.

"Come on, you can't seriously expect me to believe that the girl that you've been staring at for five minutes is just a 'friend'."

Ash hung his head. "Ok fine. You caught me."

A moment of silence passed between the two, before the boy spoke up.

"Tony."

"Huh?" Ash asked him.

"My name. It's Tony." He said, turning and holding his hand out to Ash.

"Ash." He replied, shaking it.

"Well Ash," Tony started. "Seeing as we're both in the same boat, why don't we go over there together?"

Ash smiled. "So you're nervous too, huh?"

Tony nodded, looking back over at the girls. "I just got the nerves up to ask Miranda out yesterday. It was a miracle that no other guy had asked her already."

"At least you could ask her out," Ash said, discouraged. "I was going to ask May tonight."

"I'll tell you what," Tony continued on. "I'll back you up, and you do the same for me. Deal?"

"Sounds good to me!" Ash said with relief in his voice that he wasn't going it alone tonight.

"Then let's go," Tony said as the two began to cross the floor past dancing couples to their dates. As they approached, Miranda noticed them and said something to May, who turned to face the approaching boys. She smiled kindly at ash, who smiled back in the hopes that she wouldn't notice the redness that had formed on his face.

"Well, well." Miranda said playfully to Tony. "I was starting to think you bailed on me."

"I thought that was more of your thing." Tony shot back with a smile.

"So you're Tony," May said, greeting him. "Miranda has told me so much about you!"

"Oh yeah?" Tony asked, looking at Miranda "Like what?"

"That is on a need-to-know basis." Miranda replied, wearing a coy smile. "And you don't need to know."

Then she turned to face Ash, looking to change the subject.

"So you must be Ash, right?" She asked.

"That's me." Ash replied.

Miranda looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Wow, May's description of you was spot on."

May looked over at her with a nervous expression, afraid that Miranda might say more. Luckily for her, though, Miranda left it at that. The group of teenagers talked for a bit together, about preparation for the dance and sharing stories. But when a song in Miranda's favor echoed throughout the building, she took her date for a dance, leaving Ash and May alone. The two shyly smiled as they avoided eye contact. As it turned out, Ash didn't have to worry about not looking good to May. He hadn't noticed it, but as he and Tony crossed over to her she was amazed at how good Ash looked in a tux. Since then she struggled not to stare at her friend, a battle that Ash was fighting too. Despite the upbeat and happy atmosphere around them, the moment was tense and awkward between the two. Although they had talked together countless times throughout their travels so far, tonight both found themselves at a loss of words- ironic given that both had a seemingly endless list of things to tell the other. Finally, after minutes of killer silence between the two, both decided to speak up.

"Ash," May started "May," Ash said at the very same moment, canceling each other out. Both laughed, easing the tention marginally.

"Go ahead," May said politely, really more interested in what he had to say, anyway.

"No, you," Ash practically sighed, relieved that he could procrastinate.

"Okay," May said with a shy smile. "There's something that I really have to tell you, and I've been wanting to say it for a while now."

"Sure, anything." Ash said, curious at what it was.

"Ash," She said, looking him in the eyes while still holding her shy smile. "I-"

"Oh, look who it is!" May was cut off as three girls of about their age that walked over to them, each in a different dress. "Ash, the hotshot!"

While May was confused as to how these three random girls knew Ash, He recognized them to be a part of the group of tag-alongs that had followed Tommy around.

"Oh… hey." Ash said, looking from them to May with a apprehensive expression.

"So who is this?" One of the girls asked, eyeballing May intimidatingly.

"I'm May," She spoke up before Ash could. "His friend."

The girl gave a sarcastic snort, attempting to mess with May. "Come on, Ash. You should come and hang with us."

"Sorry, but we're kind of talking right now." Ash said, wanting out of the conversation.

"Hm." The girl said, giving May a death-stare. "Let's go." And with that, the three girls walked away, mumbling hatred under their breaths.

"I'm sorry," Ash said, turning to May and smiling apologetically.

"Who were those girls?" May asked, confused.

"They kind of watched me battle earlier," Ash said, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't really know them."

"Oh, ok." May said, although in her head she was thinking 'Then why did they know your name?'.

"So what were you saying?" Ash encouraged her to continue.

"Oh, um… I wanted to tell you that-"

"Hey, Ash!" Cut off again by familiar voices. As Ash turned to face two more girls who approached them, May was getting extremely aggravated. Telling Ash how she felt wasn't easy, and all of these interruptions weren't making it any easier. And besides that, she was starting to feel as though Ash was paying more attention to them than to her- which hurt.

"Oh, hey." Ash said politely.

"You should come and dance by us," One of the girls offered to him. May was astonished.

"Sorry, but we're kind of talking right now." Ash looked at May and then back at the two.

Again, the girls obliged, although they looked agitatedly at May.

"I'm sorry," Ash repeated, oblivious to how much his familiarity with these girls was offending May.

"It's… ok." She said trying to regain her calm. "Anyway, what I've been trying to say is that I-"

"See? I told you it was Ash!" Another group of girls was coming over. But just as Ash turned to the group as he had the two times prior, May exploded.

"Fine!" She yelled, unable to hold it in any longer. "If you'd rather spend time with all of these girls that you've just met than with me, then I'll just go!"

"Wait, May!" Ash called after her, but she was already running toward the exit, tears blurring her vision. As she exited the building, many of the dancers stopped and turned to face Ash, looks of distaste on their faces.

"What's her problem?" one of the girls asked but Ash was already running after May.

"May!" He called as he exited the dome into the chilly night. "May, come back!" He looked left and right, but with no sign of her. The only one in the Ballroom yard was a maintenance man who was emptying trash cans.

"Excuse me," Ash said loudly so that the man could hear. "Did you see a girl run through here just now?"

"Yes sir," The man said as he turned to face Ash. "She came through here looking real upset and took off around the side of the building there." The man gestured to the left of the Ballroom.

"Thanks!" Ash said hurriedly as he ran off in the direction that May had went.

As he walked in the dark shadow of the building, he was constantly calling out her name. "May! Please, can we just talk?" Finally, he could see some light past the looming building's darkness. As he stepped out from behind the gloom, he was met by a beautiful back section that he hadn't even known existed. The ground was paved with stones that could be made out beneath the lights that hung from poles along the path. It seemed that this place was decorated like the inside, but nobody was out here. Nobody except for a girl who sat alone on the edge of a large stone fountain, which rested at the end of the stone path.

"May!" Ash called, recognizing her immediately and jogging over to her. But she was facing away from him, looking down into the water of the fountain with her shoulders shaking.

"May?" Ash asked as he slowed to a walk.

"I-I'm fine." He heard her say as a teardrop fell from her chin and joined the water in the fountain.

He stopped next to her. "Could you just look at me, please?" he asked her.

She shook her head, and Ash sighed.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I should have never interrupted you for those girls. But I really don't know them."

He was met by silence as another teardrop hit the water.

Ash really didn't know what to do. He had never found himself in a situation like this before, and was at a loss of words. Suddenly, he remembered what Brock had said to him about regret and took a breath. It seemed that all that he had left to say was what he thought.

"May, you mean so much more to me than any of those girls ever will." He said, feeling steadily more angry at himself at hearing the truth in his own words. "If I had a second chance, I would turn them all away just to hear what you had to say."

She turned slightly toward him, he had caught her attention.

"And right now, I would give anything for you to say anything to me."

He was met with silence, although she wiped her eyes. Ash sighed, realizing that the only thing that he had left to say was what he had wanted to tell her all along. He gulped.

"May," He started. "I… I've never felt the way I feel about you toward anyone before."

She slowly turned to face him completely. She had teardrops laced throughout her eyelashes and the fountain behind her sprayed a shimmering mist that made her look even more beautiful than she had when they were inside. Ash took a deep breath, and then continued.

"From the very first moment that I met you, I knew that you were the only girl that I would ever feel this way about."

She looked into his face, her deep blue eyes entrancing him.

"Feel what way about?" She asked quietly, a slight blush over her face as she looked up at him intently.

"I… I don't know." Ash couldn't believe that he was still at a loss of words about the subject. Realizing that carefully planning his words wouldn't help him here, he decided to just say what was on his heart.

"May, I think that you are the most beautiful girl alive, and every time I'm around you I feel like everything's going to be ok, no matter what's going on- and I feel like I'm always supposed to be with you." He went on. "You make me so happy- and I would do anything for you, and"

The next words that came out of Ash's mouth stunned them both.

"I love you May Maple, and I just really don't want to lose you!"

They both stared at each other through the light of the stars, mixed subtly with the dim dance lights. Ash couldn't believe what had just come from his mouth- he hadn't known that he had truly loved May, let alone planned to tell her that. But as the moment passed and May did nothing in return but sit on the fountain's edge and stare up at him in surprise, Ash thought that maybe he had taken it too far. Embarrassed and discouraged, he began to turn toward the building. But right as he started to move, May jumped up at him. Wrapping her arms around his head and pushing her soft, warm lips against his, she held him in an affectionate embrace. He was too surprised to kiss back, and after about a second she pulled her lips off of his and looked to the ground with a blush.

"I'm sorry," She said shyly.

"Don't be." Ash said with a smile.

"Huh?" May looked up at him and was caught off-guard as he returned her kiss. Ash had stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her back, planting his lips against hers as the fountain's mist sparkled in the background. After realizing what was happening, May closed her eyes and returned his kiss, placing one hand around his head like before and the other lightly on his cheek. As the two stood there, kissing passionately, both wished that the moment would last forever. The warmth of the other's lips against theirs confirmed both Ash and May's suspicions up until this point that they loved each other. But after what felt like a weightless eternity, the two parted from each other and smiled into the other's eyes, faces still held close.

"I love you too," May said softly as her cerulean blue eyes shone.

Both had an uplifting feeling in their hearts, like nothing could ever be wrong again. And although May hadn't said it, her kiss told Ash exactly how she felt about him. As the duo stood, arms still around each other, slow music from inside of the Ballroom drifted out to them. Both recognized the slow, romantic song and Ash decided to say something.

"May, do you want to-"

"Yes." May said with a warm smile. "I would like that very much."

Ash then lowered his hands to hold her by her waist while May rested her arms on his shoulders in a slow-dancing position. As the relaxed music lingered around the two, they gently swayed back and forth while never taking their eyes off of the other's. After a while, May rested her head on Ash's chest. He blushed but smiled, looking up at the stars as he held her. Maybe it was just the moment, but the moon looked exceptionally big, accompanied by stars that shone like millions of diamonds that smiled down upon them. They danced like that for hours, hardly saying a word to each other as they wanted to savor the moment as much as possible. Finally, though, their moment of shared perfection waned with a familiar voice in the distance.

"May! Ash! Where are you? It's time to go!" They heard Brock's voice from around the building and May looked up and gave Ash a smile.

"I guess we should probably go, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah." Ash smiled down at her with his chestnut eyes. As they parted and made their way back toward the building, Ash reached out and held May's hand.

"There you are!" Brock said as they rounded the building. "Where were you guys? I've been looking all over for you two!"

The couple merely smiled at each other.

"We just came out for some fresh air," May said.

"Yeah." Ash agreed.

"Well, you really shouldn't run off like that." Brock started a lecture, but was cut off by May.

"Oh, did you ever get your dance with Roxanne?" She asked as hordes of people were leaving the building and dispersing into the city.

Brock smiled. "No, but I think that it was all for the best."

"What do you mean?" Ash asked as the trio began to walk toward their awaiting hotel.

"I may not have had my legendary dance with Roxanne," Brock started. "But I did meet this amazing girl named Laura."

"Wait," Ash said, facing his friend. "Does this Laura happen to be a Pokemon Breeder?"

Brock looked over at Ash with a confused expression. "You know her?"

"Apparently Ash knows everyone in this town." May joked while nudging him with their held hand.

"Well," Ash said to Brock. "If you would have listened to my story earlier you would have known all of this already."

And with that, the group entered their hotel- still with many adventures to come.


FINALLY! So now that Ash and May are finally together, what do you guys think? Keep those reviews coming!

I'm still planning on keeping the story going, and have a ton of ideas for future adventures and ways to take the romance to the next level, so I still really need reviews. Feedback is the best way for me to figure out how you guys feel.

Anyway, the story got up to 1000 views the day after I posted chapter 7, which is awesome! thank you guys so much for your continued support.

By the way, If you don't want to make your thoughts public, feel free to PM me anytime with any ideas, comments, questions or hate mail (If you really hate the story.)

Thanks as always!

-StartersoverLegends