Another girl? Really? Anabel calmly sipped her soup with an irritated emotion directed at Ash.

She was hungry. Ash responded as he chewed on his bread nervously.

You know what they say: You feed them once and they'll follow you home. Misty drank her coffee quietly.

Anabel almost laughed, but disguised it as a cough.

Maylene was having the time of her life. Plate after plate of thick meats, soft breads, steaming vegetables, and melting desserts surrounded her side of the table. Foods of all kinds mixed and swallowed with little care for complimentary and clashing flavors.

"Mmmrphuff!" Maylene had repeated again. It was the tenth unintelligible exclamation she had made as she stuffed her face. Those who sat at the dining table assumed it had to do something about the food… though they'd never be able to tell.

Despite both Anabel and Angie feeling quite annoyed at the new guest, Ash seemed to be the most affected. Maylene's extremely loud personality was flooding the room with emotions of jubilation, love, and happiness. Ash was increasingly getting fatigued by being surrounded by it. Anabel was successful at shutting it out, an ability Ash seriously wished that he had at the moment.

"My my," Delia cheerfully said as she and Mr. Mime placed more food on the table, "your friend certainly likes to eat, Ash!"

Ash was too dizzied at this point to respond.

Maylene grabbed her large mug of juice and gulped down everything in her mouth. "THIS FOOD IS DELICIOUS!" she cheered loudly, crushing Ash underneath more weight of emotion.

"I'm so glad you like it!" Delia squealed in delight as she watched the girl devour more food.

"So Maylene…" Anabel said with an almost poisonous accent of her name. "What brings you here to Kanto?"

"I came here to train!" she answered loudly before she took another bite of brownie.

"I thought you said you were a Gym Leader." Angie tilted her head in confusion. "Why train? And why here?"

Maylene pounded her chest to force it to swallow another clump of bread. She exhaled with satisfaction before explaining, "Us gym leaders need to constantly train in order to keep ahead of the trainers that keep challenging us. Right, Misty?"

Misty nodded as she tasted her coffee with interest. She seemed less concerned about the frustration and excitement the pink-haired Gym Leader gave to the dining table, and more concerned at figuring out the flavor of the coffee she was drinking. Her only other interest was of Ash's suffering, which she found amusing at times.

"So yeah, I came here to train!"

"But why so far from your home?" Anabel questioned what they had all been curious of.

"Hm?" Maylene looked around her, realizing they were all attentive to this specific answer. …except for Ash, who looked as if he was ailing from a stomach ache. "I… just needed to get away from that place for a while. Kind of a personal reason."

"But don't you have duties to your Gym? Wouldn't being all the way out here become problematic to your region's Pokémon League?" Misty asked.

"Oh, that's the convenient part. They're trying something new for a season in the Sinnoh region with the main Gyms. So…" She chomped off another slab of meat and swallowed hard. "…my gym's under construction. I should be good for another month before I go back."

Oh God no… please leave… Anabel sighed to herself as she massaged her forehead.

She was ready to dive deep into Maylene's emotions to find out her real reason for leaving Sinnoh, but Ash had sensed it and stopped her in her tracks.

The male Trainer was drained, exhausted, irritated, and weak… but he had enough focus to block off anything Anabel wanted to pry into.

Hm? What? she asked Ash.

That's rude. he replied simply.

I just don't want her staying here.

She's a guest.

You going to invite the whole world in here? Anabel pushed, with a strange accent that Ash could've sworn that she had learned from Angie.

She'll be gone after this meal.

She better be. Anabel pouted.

Misty slowly became more amused at the irritation growing between the two girls. She herself had no problem with Maylene. In her eyes, she seemed like a nice enough girl. And even without Empathy she could tell she had no interest whatsoever in Ash.

Good enough for me. She smirked.

Knock knock knockknockknock knock.

Oh no… Ash wrapped a pillow around his head.

Knock knocknocknocknock knock.

…

Knock knock knock knock knockknocknockknock.

He grit his teeth in frustration and sat up.

"I don't think he's in there." a voice from outside echoed off his door.

"Knock harder. He's just a little deaf." another voice that seemed extremely humored by this situation echoed further away.

"Are you sure? I thought he was blind."

"No, no, just knock harder."

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. "Ash?"

Ash knew perfectly well who it was. He couldn't ignore her loud personality.

And he certainly knew who was encouraging her to do this. Misty. She thinks it's hilarious. Ha. Ha.

With a groan he stood up and shuffled to the door in surrender.

He opened the door, only to have Maylene stumble into his chest. She had been leaning her ear on the door.

"Whoops!" She backed away immediately.

"I'm not deaf, Misty!" Ash shouted around Maylene.

"Oh silly me." Misty giggled and walked back downstairs.

"Hey Ash!" Maylene smiled with a burst of unneeded happiness.

"Hey Maylene…" Ash rubbed his forehead. "I thought you left to find more tournaments."

"Well yes." she agreed. "Well actually." She decided to retract her comment. "I stayed for a while to talk with Misty first. It's always fun to talk to other Gym Leaders."

"The light purple-haired girl, she's Anabel." Ash pointed out. "She's the Frontier Brain I talked about. You can talk to her too." he mentioned, hoping to bait Maylene to go somewhere else. Then a thought hit his head…

…wait, now that I think about it, what is Anabel still here for? Doesn't she have duties back at Hoenn? I need to remember to ask her.

"Oh… well… I don't know what a Frontier Brain is." Maylene shrugged. "Is that like a Gym Leader?"

"Yeah, kind of." Ash had no idea if he wanted to explain more, as any further discussion might involve more questions from her.

…

…

"…did you come here for something?" Ash asked after realizing Maylene's attention had been absorbed at her fascination with items in his room.

"Oh right! Well, I was talking with Misty. Just to get all the small details about your journey up to this point." she was rambling almost too fast for him to understand.

Must have been all the sweets she ate. Ash assumed. The Maylene he knew was far more calm and mature. After a thought, he realized that her comment of being poor might have had a large impact on her diet… which may have explained why she had become so energetic after the meal.

"First off, you're awesome, cool stories. Next off, and more importantlyyyyy–" Maylene was now drumming her fingers on his chest. Ash had no idea why she was drumming her fingers on his chest.

With a quick slap on his chest as the final tap of her imagined drums, she continued, "I heard the play by play of your matches without pokémon! WithOUT pokémon and you still won! You're crazy! I've fought pokémon before, of course you know that, but I've never done it as a real challenge!"

"…wait wait… how does Misty know about those fights?"

"She heard the details from May, who heard of the other battle's details from Angie, who was there in your match against Anabel."

…

"…is that it?" Ash scratched his cheek. He gave up trying to block out her emotions. He didn't know how, and he more than likely wasn't going to find out anytime soon.

"Oh right. Welllllll–" She began drumming her fingers again on his chest.

Reminder… don't overfeed Maylene. Ash noted.

"I wanted you to have a match with me!" she stated excitedly.

Normally Ash would've loved a Pokémon Match, but his headache had made him rather uncaring for the challenge at the particular moment.

With a quick sidestep that made him appear to be shifting his balance, Ash had kicked his poké ball belt behind the door. He did a quick feel around and noticed Pikachu's essence sleeping on the roof.

"Oh no, I don't have any pokémon with me. I must've left them somewhere…" Ash lied poorly.

Maylene didn't seem to notice. "Actually, I wanted a match with you. Not your pokémon."

"A… match with me?"

"Yeah. You know, fisticuffs, martial arts, brawling, beat downs, martial dancing, painful politics, dueling, rough housing, combat, battle, knuckle war, head-butting–"

"I get it."

"…fighting."

"… I'm not much of a fighter."

"You knocked out a Venusaur." she stated with excited interest.

"I got lucky."

"You knocked it off balance by using its Vine Whip's momentum!"

"Only because I knew what she was intending to do… with my Empathy."

"I'll let you do it to me."

WHAT ARE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT UP THERE? Misty had heard only the last line.

She wants me to fight her. He grumbled to her.

Oh, that's fine. Her emotions closed off in disinterest.

Ash sighed. "Okay."

"OK! You're going dooooowwwWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNN–" Maylene held the line as she slowly backed away.

…

She popped her head back around the corner and continued, "–NNNN….. ASSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH–" and disappeared from sight.

Sigh.

After a quick shower and dressing into fresh clothes, Ash walked outside and searched for his opponent.

Nowhere. There was only her lucario, who was staring at him with interest.

He sighed. I get ready for her and she's late…

This was one fight he wasn't looking forward to, and the idea that he had to actually wait for hit made him slightly irritated. Normally, Ash was up for any new challenges – but the headache he had earned from his Empathy had only made him unnaturally fatigued. He had never felt so drained and weary in his life, and not even the shower and fresh clothes helped his situation much… a slight migraine still formed at the side of his head.

If anymore situations like this occurred, he concluded that he would grow to hate his Empathy more than like it.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" a battle cry snapped his attention back to reality.

With an instinctive roll, Ash barely avoided the unseen and unfelt attack.

His sudden dodge had surprised even himself. A strange feeling filled him… though he quickly ignored it as he brought his focus back to the battle at hand.

He centered his senses to his hearing, trying to scout for where the attacker had disappeared to.

Two ridiculously light thumps landed softly on the grass north of him.

"That's a horrible stance." Maylene's voice came in loud and clear, with an odd feeling surrounding it.

"I told you I'm not a fighter." he replied, hoping she'd answer so he could feel out the odd feeling again.

"Even if you're not, you definitely have great reaction time."

There it was again. The odd feeling. What is tha–

…

Nothing.

Maylene wasn't there. Her sound stopped, her feeling stopped.

Her feeling stopped?

Ash tilted his head in confusion. As far as he was aware of, no one can make their emotions stop… they could only block them off… yet there it was, no feeling whatsoever! She was completely invisible to him.

The odd feeling… She's masking herself somehow…

The fight suddenly had him interested.

"What are you looking at?" a voice whispered right into his ear.

He panicked and stumbled out of the way. She laughed at his reaction.

She was suddenly visible. A soft hue of pink surrounding her direction. "You're not the first Empathic fighter I've faced, Ash." Her feet adjusted against the grass, her stance shifting.

"You are, however, the first one I've known to fight pokémon seriously." Her feet left the ground, but to where, he couldn't tell. The wind had stalled, preventing any obvious sounds of air movement from reaching his ears.

She's to your left.

Ash struck out to his left, feeling a forearm come into contact with his fist.

He heard a quick gasp that backed away immediately. "How did you do that?" Maylene seemed genuinely worried.

Misty? Ash recognized the one who gave him the heads-up. What are you doing?

Helping you, obviously.

Why?

She's going to strike you from behind.

Ash turned his body and faced the sneaking opponent.

A body that was about to collide with his suddenly backed away again.

How is he… Ash sensed Maylene's emotions for a second.

…so why are you helping me, Mist?

You're not a fighter, are you?

No…

She knows how to fight against Empathics. You don't know how to fight. This hardly seems fair. I'm making it fair. – Duck.

Ash ducked just in time for a punch to fly above his head.

Her foot's in front of your left foot.

He reached down and grabbed an ankle. The body it belonged to suddenly felt its balance being threatened and proceeded to kick him in the face. "ACK!"

Misty laughed.

What's so funny? He slowly crawled to his feet after being toppled over.

This just throws it right back in Angie and Anabel's face.

What?

They called me a pokémon. But really, you're my pokémon right now.

He sighed. You're enjoying this, aren't you?

Of course. Misty giggled to herself.

Maylene pinpointed the sound of laughter and found Misty sitting on a tree branch in the distance.

"Ohhhh… I get it. Very sneaky, Ash." Maylene's voice suddenly seemed normal. Her personality was far easier to find, albeit not as loud as it used to be.

"I didn't ask her to." Ash admitted. "I can't really ignore emotions… then again, I'm not very good with my other senses either, so it's not a complete advantage."

"Well I guess I was being a bit unfair then. How about we fight fair?" Maylene's guard was down. Testing, testing! Can you hear this? she pushed with her emotions.

"Loud and clear." He replied.

"OK! Let's do this!"

Paf paf paf paf pif paf paf. She was charging in fast.

Ash had no idea how to fight a real fighter. The most experience he had ever gotten physically was protecting his friends from ridiculous things like robots, nets, grappling claws, and containment devices.

Then just treat it like those things. Misty's voice came in again.

Hey quiet, I can handle her n–

SMASH

A punch connected with his face and he found himself tumbling across the grass.

I let you handle that. Misty giggled.

"Ow…"

I'm just giving advice, Ash. Not telling you what to do.

Ash slowly got on his feet and listened carefully to the wind.

Just treat her like Team Rocket's machines. You've done more than most trainers or fighters out there… she shouldn't be this hard for you.

"Just treat her like Team Rocket's machines…" he whispered to himself.

Paf. Behind.

A swoosh and flap in the wind gave away the fact that it was a kick coming his way.

He dove over the kick. But what he would do after that, he wasn't sure.

Pretend like one of her legs is Pikachu.

What?

Just do it.

Another kick came his way; the sound it made was different from the other. This one's Pikachu. he thought to himself.

Adjusting his body for the blow to hit him flat on the chest, Ash imagined Pikachu being knocked out from an arena and he was using his body to catch him.

The hit was too hard, too direct to be anything like Pikachu, and the pain he felt was the price for it.

"OOF!"

He toppled and rolled across the grass. "…ow…"

Okay, so that didn't work.

Yeah, thanks for the advice. he growled.

You don't have to take my advice. Misty sighed. Look, stop treating it like a fight. Just get into it.

Really? That's it? Ash mocked.

Yeah, really. You tend to do your best when you make things up.

…

Ignoring his body's pleadings to surrender, Ash hopped onto his feet and prepared himself.

"Ready for more?" Maylene was calm again. All the sugar had drained from her system, and now she sounded far more like the calm and mature Maylene he first met.

"Ready when you are."

"Hyaaaaaa!" A jump kick.

"Here goes noTHIIINNGGG!" Ash charged the attack head on.

ASH WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Misty panicked.

I HAVE NO IDEA! He panicked with her.

By pure luck, Ash had moved his head slightly, causing Maylene's foot to only scrape his cheek. Her counter to this would have been to bend and lock the knee immediately in order to pinch and capture his neck for a mid-air grapple. The technique was meant to place him into a headlock with her legs and cause him to lose balance, giving her the complete advantage. Such an attack may have been extremely effective… if his head hadn't smashed right into a spot it should have never hit.

Pain spread throughout Maylene's legs and hips, sending a strained ache up the top portion of her body and making her stomach feel sick. Ash had completely toppled backwards, unsure what he had hit at all.

He felt a kick nudge his head slightly. Maylene was rolling over, in complete pain and shock.

She had been curled up into a ball with her hands between her legs, seething in agony.

Lucario started laughing.

"M-Maylene?" Ash asked with a bit of concern.

ASH! Misty screamed at him.

What?

Why'd you hit her there?

Hit her where?

"I- I- I'm okay." Maylene struggled to get up.

"Y-You sure?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." She didn't sound good.

Ash walked towards her to give her a hand. He got a punch to the side of the head as a response.

"We're still fighting, Ash!" Maylene hissed with a wince of pain. "So give it all you got!"

"But–"

Not willing to wait for Ash to change his mood, Maylene limp-dashed towards him and struck four hard hits in his stomach.

He had seen it coming, but couldn't react fast enough. He wasn't even sure if he should react considering what he did to her. What he did to her, he wasn't fully sure. Neither Misty nor Maylene wanted to even hint what it was.

Ash crumpled from the blows.

To prevent him from getting up, Maylene swung her foot forward and swung it back like a pendulum, meant to strike him hard against his head with the side of her heel.

Ash definitely felt this one coming and grabbed the incoming blow. His fingers wrapped around the ball of her heel, completely controlling the momentum of the attack. The fighter girl found herself wobbling from the grab and decided to press down her weight, effectively crushing his fingers if they remained where they were. Ash responded by rolling onto his feet and lifting her leg completely off the ground.

In defiance, Maylene quickly jumped with her other leg and swung it towards his head. The action was like a thing of beauty to all who saw, as she seemed to defy gravity. Ash, however, could only see through what he felt. Her weight had adjusted completely, and he felt her thrust heading straight for him.

He let go of the leg right before the impact, forcing the fighting girl to fall sideways to the ground. She softened the landing with a quick turn and roll, leading to a tripping kick, a move Ash only half-avoided.

He fell with a thud right on top of her. She struck two quick blows with her fist into his head and followed it with a forearm press that forced him onto his back.

She pressed her arm down onto his neck, effectively choking him. "Surrender."

He tossed and turned, trying to find a way to escape the choke. He kicked upwards, striking a spot that had already crippled her earlier in the match.

She gasped in disbelief and weakened.

Realizing that it was that spot that he had hit earlier with his face, he was completely ashamed of himself.

But with Maylene's head lowered from his last attack, there was little time for shame. Ash took that opportunity to swing his head upwards and smash it against Maylene's forehead.

She backed away in pain and toppled over.

Ash was about to check if she was okay after he had stood, but his standing only prompted in Maylene's sudden aggression. She had wrapped her thighs around his left foot and pulled his right foot towards her.

He no longer had control of his center of balance. Quickly tilting incorrectly, he fell back on top of her. With a roll and a shove, she pinned him back down and hammered punch after punch into his face. He answered fiercely with a bite on her knuckles and punching her back.

Angered, Maylene slammed her head into his. He slammed back. The two regretted this action and both fell to their side.

...

…

…

"Ow." Ash was the first to say.

Maylene was breathing hard… she had never had that kind of fight in her life.

She loved it.

Ignoring the pain of several incoming bruises, she started laughing and reached weakly over to pat Ash's head. She couldn't say anything; she couldn't really focus enough to feel anything specific, so she patted him instead. The laugh and pat was her odd sign of affection for this specific moment.

Ash laughed in response and laid his hand on her hair, unable to get his body to pat it.

Her laugh losing strength, Maylene lifted her arm and pointed it skyward. "…tie."

"…yes." Ash weakly cheered.

…

Lucario was clapping.

"Hold still."

"But it hurts!"

"It'll stop hurting once I'm done, so stay still!" Misty patted the wet cotton swab on the open wound on Ash's head. He stiffened in silent agony. "Quit being such a baby. It's your fault you got hurt this bad."

"How is it my fault?"

"You should've just given up when she told you to surrender."

Ash seemed unrepentant of his actions.

A calm and agreeable feeling entered the room. It resembled a mature woman, yet its stature was frail in shape – but built tough as stone. Maylene had walked in and sat on the cushion next to Ash.

"So Ash…" she began. "Where's Dawn?"

"She's still up at Sinnoh." Ash answered with a wince as Misty pressed another band-aid against one of his cuts.

"Actually," Misty corrected, "She's up at Hoenn right now."

"Hm? How do you know that?" The boy poked at her emotions in curiosity.

She slapped his poke away like a child reaching for a cookie before dinner. "She told me herself."

What? When did you talk to her? Ash was now really curious.

"She calls sometimes." Misty answered with a tone to tell Ash that it was rude to have an Empathic conversation when other people want answers too. "She moved over to Hoenn to compete as a Coordinator for the season."

Ash wanted to ask several questions at once, but started with, "So she'll be competing against May again?"

"More than likely."

"Wish I could see it."

"Well they do film the matches… I know which channels to turn to when they're on." Maylene added helpfully.

The two travel friends waved their hands in unison in front of their eyes to signify Ash's blindness.

"Oh oops!" Maylene blushed in embarrassment.

Ash continued with his questions, "How come she called you and not me?"

Misty tied another bandage around Ash's ankle. "Because you're boring to talk to."

"Hey!" Ash was offended, though he wasn't sure if he really had a right to be offended. I don't really know what to say on the phone, anyways.

It's actually because you never call anyone. Misty shoved at him. She just assumed you didn't like calls.

Oh… …HEY! I call people!

Yeah, Professor Oak and your mother.

…who else am I supposed to call?

She tightened a bandage to a painful degree.

"OW!" What was that for?

You never send me any calls, you jerk.

What do you want me to call you for?

"Oh I don't know! How about calling me to tell me you ended up in an accident that made you lose your sight?" Misty yelled at Ash's face.

"Maybe I didn't want to worry anyone about it!"

"So you call May, but not me?"

"She called me! You never called me once!"

The two were growling at each other. A cough broke their attention.

"Um guys?" Maylene waved nervously at them. "…I don't have Empathy…"

Misty bowed. "Oh sorry."

Don't pretend like you have Empathy. Ash pinned on Misty.

I never said I did. she responded, showing she was ready for another fight.

But you never said you didn't when she said that we both had it.

She didn't say that, she said she didn't have Empathy.

Same thing.

And it's the same thing that you never called me but you're so eager to answer May's calls!

That doesn't make any sense!

"Who's May?" Maylene asked nervously.

Ash tilted his head in her direction. "The one who owned the venusaur that I fought."

"Oh right!"

"I travelled with her for a year… or was it two years? Three? …er… well anyways! You could say she was my student!" Ash boasted. "I taught her the basics when it came to pokémon."

And what am I? A Magikarp?

You weren't my student. Ash defended.

But I travelled with you for years, too! You're just going to leave that out?

Why is this some kind of competition for you?

An aura of hurt floated around Misty's chest. She loosened the too-tight bandage and yanked it to test its hold-strength.

Misty…

"Was Dawn your girlfriend?" Maylene's innocent question destroyed the somber mood… by dropping a heavy weight of tension on top of it.

Ash shattered at the thought. Misty burned in silent fire.

Jailbait.

Ash was afraid to ask what Misty meant but was far too curious to leave it alone. Wh-What do you mean by that?

Dawn. She hissed the name.

What do you mean? What's wrong with her?

A girl that young shouldn't be dressing like that.

What are you talking about? Dawn's isn't that young!

She's four years younger than us!

"She is?" Ash blurted out loud.

"You met her when she was ten." Misty no longer cared about keeping the topic quiet. Dawn can be exposed for the girl that she was. She was a nice girl, Misty admitted, but her constant concern over Ash on the phone calls and nonstop blabbing about how she kept seeing him in her dreams and blah blah blah BLAH BLAH. Misty's anger boiled. "It had been at least four and a half years since we met when you first met her. It could have been five and a half, and if she had an odd birthday it could certainly have been six! So Dawn's definitely way too young for you."

Ash's jaw stiffened and mind panicked at her insinuation.

"So…" Maylene watched the back-and-forth argument held by Ash and Misty. "…she is your girlfriend?"

"NO!" The two yelled at once.

"Are you two dating?"

"N-No." The two stumbled after the other.

"So Ash is free?"

Misty's eyes widened and locked on. Maylene was a very nice girl, and she was turning out to be a fun friend to have around, but wherever she was leading with this would not end well for her.

Maylene recognized her fiery glare instantly and flinched. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of her face. "N-Nevermind. He might be too young for me anyways."

Ash faced Maylene and tilted his head curiously. "How old are you?"

Maylene seemed taken aback by that question. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I thought you were the same age as me."

"Well how old are you?" Maylene asked back.

"End of conversation, you two." Misty's eyebrows twitched. "You should probably patch up that bruise on your leg, Maylene." She stood and walked towards the stairs.

"What brui–"

Misty jabbed her foot hard against Maylene's leg and pretended to trip.

"OW!"

The Water Pokémon Trainer faked a stumble and hissed, "Whoops. Clumsy me."

Maylene looked up at her in concern. Misty glared at her with an obvious message. The Fighting Gym Leader backed down and showed vulnerability.

That's what I thought. Misty turned and walked upstairs.

…

…

"Is she normally like that?" Maylene whispered to Ash once Misty had closed a door.

"On a normal day." Ash laughed.

Maylene giggled. "What's an abnormal day?"

"When she's alone with me, apparently." He shrugged.

"Ohhh… so you two…"

"What? No. No. Nothing like that!" Ash waved his hands frantically. "She's just nicer when no one else is around."

"Ah okay."

Ash played with his bandages a bit and poked at some covered bruises.

Maylene had done the same in silence.

…

"Your leg okay?" Ash asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah. It'll be fine. That kick you gave me hurt a lot more."

The young trainer's face turned absolutely crimson. "I am so sorry. So very sorry."

Maylene laughed. "Nah, you didn't mean it. I just have to… sit awkwardly for a while." She stuck her tongue out in a childish manner.

He was far too embarrassed to respond.

"…so…" Maylene went back to a whisper. "…how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Really? I would've thought you were fourteen at most!"

BU-DUM. An object dropped heavily on the floor above.

Maylene reduced her volume immediately, "I'm seventeen."

"So you are older than me." Ash lowered his voice but still put up a surprised tone.

"Yeah, people think I'm eleven or twelve sometimes… it's my flat chest, really."

Ash wasn't comfortable talking about chest sizes, but nodded as to not seem rude.

She continued, "It comes from my poor diet. Don't eat well and you don't grow well."

"For a girl who doesn't eat well, you sure are in great shape! Your fighting moves are awesome!" Ash had let his voice rise back up.

Maylene followed his volume, "Thanks! I do my best. Fighting's my passion!"

"I could tell."

"And that fight we had?" she butted in. "Amazing! The kind of fight you look forward to for all your life!"

Ash tilted his head. "Really? I thought I fought awful!"

"You fought with heart! You fought how you could fight! How you should fight!" Maylene stood and clenched her fists. "Every fight I've been in was always filled with rules that stopped you from going all out. But that fight we had?"

Her extremely loud energy was coming back, except on a far more focused scale, pumping through her entire body instead of shooting out. Her tiny body looked like it couldn't hold in all that pent up energy. She ran in place and held a large grin, looking like a child waiting for a present on Christmas Day.

Stomping into a stance, she made the tiniest howl Ash had ever heard. She obviously was trying to avoid getting Misty's attention. Ash smiled amusingly at her. She was the happiest thing in the world at the moment – a girl who seemed nowhere near her age.

Her stance changed and she exhaled a large amount of energy.

…

"I mean, WHAT a fight!" She squealed.

Ash could hear her heart pounding hard in her tiny frame.

"Yeah, it was pretty fun." he responded with a chuckle.

She shoved her face just inches from his, noses almost touching. Her eyes were wide and sparkling with youth. "Wasn't it?"

With a hop upwards her energy came flowing back. "Why can't every fight be like that? It was amazing! I never felt so alive in my entire life!" She bent over and grabbed Ash's hands in a firm grip. "Promise me we'll fight again!"

"Huh?"

"Promise me we'll fight again!" Her tone was cheerful, yet serious. "I want to get stronger. I want to get faster. I want to get tougher! I want to fight pokémon like you did! And when I get back, I want to face you again!"

"…get back?"

"Well I'm going to do what I said I would do." Maylene let go of Ash and scratched her chin. "Go around Kanto and train with my Lucario and just get better… but before I go back to my Gym, I'm definitely stopping by here again."

She paused. "… you will be here again, right?"

"I'm not su–"

"Well I'll find you." Maylene shamelessly interrupted. "OK?"

Ash smiled. "OK!"

"OK!" Maylene grabbed her single bag and ran out the door.

"Lucario! We're heading out!" her voice echoed outside.

Her pink haired head popped back into the house. "Don't forget! We have to fight again!"

"OK." Ash had noticed that 'OK' was her personal phrase, one that she seldom used – probably due to odd looks and strange treatments. She definitely was more than happy that Ash was using it.

"OK!" She grinned and let out one last burst of that ridiculously happy emotion before slamming the front door shut.

The door slam echoed throughout the house and left a strange ringing in Ash's ears. He did his best to clear it.

…

"Did she finally leave?" came a voice from below.

"A-Angie?" Ash scrambled off the couch in surprise.

Squirming out of the couch like a caterpie, the gold-eyed tomboy grunted and grumbled as she got every inch of her body back into the open. She rolled, crouched, then stood. Cracking her back and legs into a comfortable state. Angie gave one last stretch before jumping into a sitting position on the couch.

"What were you doing underneath the couch?" Ash was still in surprise.

"Well first, I was hiding from Anabel. She was getting all 'personal' again and needed to use me like a yes-woman." In one casual swoop, she snatched up the remote and turned on the television. "I didn't want to have anything to do with that, so I hid. Then you guys came in and sat on me. I couldn't exactly leave without freaking out the Gym Leader… so I waited there until they left."

She exhaled, finishing her explanation, "Aaand here I am."

…

Ash shrugged. Good enough for me.

He sat on the cushion beside Angie. "What's on?"

"Dunno. Flipping through 'em."

"Sounds good to me."