= One Week Later -
Ash stood at the the top of the slope, Pikachu on his shoulder and Maddison near him, standing a small distance from Ash's side, Servine held in her arms: Looking down the slope at the field, Ash watched in amusement as Richie and A/J packed their bags, the 4 trainers ready to leave the area. Richie was busy trying to pull his sleeping bag from Sparky, who was stretched out on top of it, shouting, "Pi-Pikachu!" In protest, making Richie groan in frustration.
"Come on Sparky! Its time to go! Ash and Maddison are waiting for us!" Richie argued back, shooting his yellow mouse pokemon an annoyed glare, making Sparky just huff, before grinning, jumping off the sleeping bag as Richie pulled making the boy fall onto his backside with a grunt, "SPARKY!" Richie shouted, standing up with a glare at the pokemon, who was holding his stomach as he laughed loudly at his trainer's fall, "Dammit, Ash's Pikachu is really rubbing off on you..." Grumbled the brown hair boy, snatching the sleeping bag up and stuffing it in his bag, choosing to ignore the still laughing Sparky.
A.j on the other-hand had was already packed and ready to go, but seemed to want to push his look via trying to get close to Charizard once again: Slowly approaching the Fire-Starter from behind, A.j gulped when he snapped on a small stick, making Charizard sharply turn its head to glare at the approaching green-haired boy. Holding his hands up, A.J looked at the pokemon desperately, "H-hey! i don't want to start anything, I-i just wanted to apologized for the other day!" He pleaded, watching as Charizard raise a brow at the trainer, looking him up and down, before grunting and turning his head away with a smirk: A.J sighed in relief, thinking he was safe, but yelped in surprise when Charizard turned his head back and shot a Flamethrower at him, making him fall backwards, his face and upper body blackened from the attack as Charizard growled out a laugh.
"That means he forgives you!" Ash shouted down to A.J, who sat up and coughed a little, looking back at Ash in bewilderment, making Ash shrug, "You can tell, the last time his Flamethrower was brighter red from annoyance, this one was less red and more yellow, it means he is playing around" Ash explained, having been hit with enough of his Charizard's Flamethrowers to understand the differences between them.
Ash continued to smile as A.J huffed, wiping the remains of the attack of his face and shirt: turning his attention to Maddison, who was looking down at the Servine with a smile, Ash coughed a little, making her look up at him through the splits in her hair that she seemed to enjoy hiding behind - at least that's what Ash had gathered from being around the girl for the past week, "You sure you want to come with us Maddison? I know you don't like being around people much...even i'm a little apprehensive to travel with those two," Ash started, pointing to the two boys now stood at the base of the slope, shouting up offended, "Hey!" Making Ash roll his eyes, "Moving on...if you don't want to travel with us, we wont be offended at all..."
Looking up at the 15-year-old boy in front of her, Maddison moved a hand to tuck one side of her hair behind her ear, revealing a shy but somewhat trusting green eye to Ash. "I-I'm sure...L-Like you said...S-S-Sometimes those who can't talk, c-can talk to each other..." She replied, repeating the words Ash had said to her that day: words that had been stuck in her head the whole week as she very slowly opened up to Ash.
Nodding towards the long-haired girl, Ash looked down the slope and raised a brow at the two boys eavesdropping on the conversation, "Are you guys going to just stand and stare, or are you going to climb the slope and get a move-on?" Ash commented, raising a brow at the knowing look the two boys shared, small smirks on their faces, "I'll ask them later" He though, watching as the two climbed the slope.
Nodding, Ash called Charizard, who flew over to the group, watching as Ash threw another poke'ball in the air, revealing Pidgeot who cawed and stretched her wings, "Alright, Richie, A.J, you guys hop on Pidgeot, me and Maddison will take Charizard" Ash told the three trainers, ignoring the same knowing look from A.J and Richie as they climbed onto Pidgeot, "Alright Pidgeot, us and Charizard will fly ahead, you guys follow behind okay?" Pidgeot nodded, flapping her wings, waiting to take off.
Petting her feathers gently, Ash walked over to Charizard and climbed on his back, looking down at Maddison with a smile as he offered her his hand, "Come on, We can get to Ceruleon City faster this way, don't worry about Charizard, he wont attack you, right Charizard?" Ash reassured Maddison, giving Charizard a pointed look when he noticed the small amount of fear on the girls face.
Charizard grunted but nodded, holding two of claws up and crossing his heart with his others, making Maddison giggle slightly at the flying lizard: with slight hesitation, she took Ash's offered hand and climbed onto Charizard's back, raising a poke'ball before hand to return Servine. As Charizard took off into the air, Maddison let out a small, "eep!" moving her hands around Ash's waist and clinging onto him, making Ash smile, "She's just like a little sister... Ash thought, as Richie and A.J noticed her grab his waist, smirking to each over, both thinking the same thing, "They so have crushes on each other"
- 1 hour later -
Charizard grunted as he landed, flapping his wings slowly as his feet touched the ground: Pidgeot doing the same as she followed closely behind. Patting Charizard's head gently in thanks, Ash went to climb down, but stopped when he realized that Maddison's arm where still tightly wrapped around his waist: looking back at her, Ash gave a half smile when he noticed that here eyes were squeezed shut, "Maddison, we've landed, you can let me go now..." At Ash's words, Maddison slowly opened her yes, looking around to see that they had indeed landed, blushing a little, she quickly moved her arms form around Ash's waist, ducking her face behind her hair once again.
With a playful laugh, Ash hoped off Charizard's back, offering Maddison his hand which she took, helping of his back as Charizard yawned and stretched his neck, "Thanks a lot Charizard, return" Thanking Charizard who shot Ash a thumbs up, he returned the fire-type and turned to Pidgeot, who had landed, Richie and A.J having already climbed of her back, "You two Pidgeot, thanks, you take a rest, return"
After the his two flying type pokemon had returned, Ash clipped their poke'balls to his new belt that now how enough clips to hold up to 15 poke'balls when they were shrunk: A.J had given Ash the belt after Ash had noticed the boy wearing a similar one, the green hair boy saying that he made it so he could keep all his pokemon on him.
Shifting his bag slightly, Ash turned to face forwards, making out the outline's of the Cerulean City gym over the tree's: looking at the Richie who stood to the left of him, A.J who stood to the right, and Maddison who stood a few steps behind him, Ash smiled and nodded, "Lets go"
After walking for a few minutes, Ash had decided to hang back and walk with Maddison,A.J and Richie, who had struck up a convesation about the different pokemon they each have, now walking a head of the two slightly, "Well i have my buddy Sparky, obviously! But i also have Zippo, my Charmelion, Rose my Swellow, Happy - My Butterfree, Cruise, my Tyranitar, I also have Jack the Fearow, Illusion the Tentacruel and Blair, my Flareon" Ash heard Richie tell A.J, making a note in his head about the pokemon Richie had with him.
As Richie went on to explain to A.J why he nicknamed his pokemon and why he chose the names specifically, Ash looked at Maddison walking next to him, her body still slightly tensed up, "Hey Maddison..." Ash started, stopping his walking to stand and look at the girl, who had stopped at the sound of her name to glance at Ash shyly, "I was just wondering, what kind of pokemon you have? I know you have your Servine, she hasn't left your side the whole week but i haven't seen you with any other pokemon..."
"Her name is Nagini..." Maddison started, making Ash nod in understand, "Sorry, I know you have Nagini, your Servine" Ash corrected himself, watching as Maddison reached to her belt and held out two new poke'balls: a normal red and white one, and a yellow and black one - an Ultra ball.
Maddison threw the two balls into the air, watching as her two other pokemon appeared before the two: the first to materialize was a powerful looking Mienshao, a pokemon covered in white and purple fur. With a a cry of its name, the long-armed pokemon stretched and looked at Maddison with a smile, before noticing Ash and getting into a defensive position in front of the girl, "I-its okay Maya...A-Ash is a...f-f-friend...?" Maddison reassured Mienshao, saying "Friend" questionably towards Ash who smiled and nodded, "Friend" Ash confirmed with a smile, making the clearly name Maya relax her position, allowing Ash to walk closer to inspect her.
Reaching into his pocket, Ash pulled out his pokedex and scanned Maddison's second pokemon; Mienshao, the Martial Arts Pokemon and the evolved form of Mienfoo. Mienshao's arm attacks are so fast they're almost invisible. It uses its long arm fur as a whip.
Nodding to himself as he closed the pokedex for a second, he looked over Maya, gently running a hand over her fur: Maddison's eyes widen as she went to stop Ash, but was surprised when Maya purred gently, clarly enjoying what Ash was doing, "She's got very soft fur - A good sign that's she's healthy, she also looks very strong, you did a good job raising her" Ash commented, removing his hand for Maya, who smiled and held one of her whip like arms to her chest proudly.
"Wow...Maya never lets anyone touch her. except me..." Maddison noted out loud, clearly amazed at Ash's ability to get along with any pokemon he wanted to: With a smile, Ash went to reply but stopped when he heard a small, "Lit-wick..." Looking down, Ash finally noticed the small candle shaped pokemon hiding behind Maddison's leg. With a smile, Ash knelt down and offered his hand out to the small pokemon, "Sorry pal, i didn't see you their...don't worry i wont hurt you..."Ash spoke gently, a voice he reserved for nerviouse or scared pokemon.
Pocking his head head from behind Maddison's leg, his arms still clinging to his trainers leg, Litwick looked at the offered hand fearfully as tears began to gather in the small Pokemon's eyes, his clearly shiny blue flame jumping up as he began to cry: Pulling his hand back and looking to Maddison in worry, who just looked bent down and picked the crying pokemon up, cradling him in her arms like a baby, "Its okay Lumiere" She reassured the now named Lumiere, rocking him gently as his cries died down till he fell asleep.
Smiing as he fell asleep, Maddison returned both the two new pokemon before glancing at Ash, who had a small look of wonder and question, "Lumiere is a new born...he is only a few weeks old, and when he was born, he was picked on for looking different and being smaller than normal, so now he always cries around strangers..." Maddison explain quetly, making Ash nod in understanding.
"Makes sense, being a shiny pokemon can be difficult i supp-"
"HEY! Are you guys coming on not?!" The trainers blinked and looked towards the sound of A.J's voice, noticing him and Richie waiting for the two talking trainers near an opening in the tree line, "Yeah! Come on! The gym is right here!" Richie agreed, pointing thorugh the opening to the gym that stood just ahead of the two boys.
Looking at each other, Maddison and Ash gave a small laugh, turning and running to catch up to the two impatient boys, "Yeah, were coming!"
