A/N. Ok, so as it turns out, I'm having a lot of difficult getting chapters out right now. So I may wind up taking a little break and working on another story that needs revision for a little bit, until my pool of ideas refreshes itself… Hopefully I won't have to…

Disclaimer: I own nothing, because if I did, those little PMD specials would've been a whole entire series.


Ep 12: Fresh Starts are Made


Contrary to whatever popular belief had been amongst her friends, and anyone who honestly knew her moderately well, Ashe hadn't always hated her home. She hadn't always wanted out of Pallet Town, hadn't always gone specifically out of her way at every chance she seemingly got to displease her mother and prove just how unlike her she wanted to be.

Pallet Town hadn't always looked and felt like an inescapable prison to her.

There had been a time that she'd wanted to please her mother and grandparents, and would do anything to hear them just once say how proud they were of her. But it was hard when everything they wanted looked strange and foreign to her, when she grew so bored so easily of playing pretend tea parties with her mother and some of the more delicate little girls that she'd tried to get along with, honestly she had. But they were dull and frankly, at such a young age and with such a limited vocabulary at the time, stupid. And the tea parties were so fake and saccharine that she'd only been able to turn her nose up at the end of it all and quit.

Which had been quite the severe blow to her own pride, because when in the world did Ashelyn Volcna Ketchum quit? Never, until that specific in time. Her mother on the other hand, had been far more stubborn than she could ever hope to be, and had tried, persistently so to instill some sort of "regularity" into her only daughter.

Or that was the only word Ashe could come up with to describe her mother's goals.

They'd all fallen short though, and by the time Ashe was six, at what had to be the earliest age possible for a child, she'd decided on three big things.

One; that her grandparents and female cousins were all idiots, and her male cousins were just so boringly dull that she could not be asked to associate with them for any length of time. Two; that anyone who played with those freaky human-shaped dolls with the glass eyes might be certifiably insane. And three, which had been probably most jarring thing in the world for any child she was certain.

Three; she hated her mother.

Hated everything she seemed to represent, and what she stood for, what she tried making Ashe into. What Ashe never would be, because the parts that might've made her into something that her grandparents would've been proud of, just didn't exist.

She couldn't be the little girl who played with dolls and wore frilly dresses. The sight of mud didn't bother her and she'd had more scraped knees and bruised elbows in her day to last all of the children of Pallet Town, and still have some more. And bug-types were about the second most fascinating thing she'd ever seen.

Bows were frivolous at best and tangled too easily for her admittedly short patience to handle, skirts got in the way and ripped too easily, and if her mother pulled her hair one more time trying to get it into one of those curly ponytails that she thought made all the other girls in town look rather silly, then she was going to hit something. She wouldn't even get within ten feet of any kind of make-up because the one time she'd let her mother apply it to her face, she'd felt and looked like a clown.

So no, she couldn't be the pretty little princess that her mother had wanted so badly she'd practically bled all over the kitchen floor for it. She couldn't be the perfect little angel her grandparents had wanted, and she certainly was not about to try anymore.

Because she had tried, and all it had done was leave her with a festering resentment and hatred for the only family she'd ever had that had managed to actually stick around. For the little town she'd lived in with no way out, and no place to go unless you had a future as a pokémon trainer, or something similar.

So yes, she'd run away, shamelessly and without any hesitation beyond some admittedly minor, insubstantial preparation that had gotten her a lot farther than it probably should've. And if that broke her poor mother's heart, well, after three weeks of being out from under the woman's domineering thumb, and by extension out of her grandparents' iron grip, she certainly no longer felt any guilt for it.

And maybe she was being a little extreme right now, but it was the truth.

She wasn't going back, regardless of what anyone said.


Unsurprisingly, it had been Diantha to figure out without any clues or anyone saying anything, that maybe the thirteen year old trainer she'd found in the hills outside of Lumiose City wasn't who she had originally thought to be. Which was, to say rather simply, just that. A moderately decent, thirteen year old foreign trainer who'd just had the grievously bad luck to accidently stumble into a pangoro's territory.

But she wasn't just some random trainer with occasionally abysmal luck. She'd been a little rogue all the way from Kanto, Pallet Town of all places, run off from home and with no intentions of turning back. Only three pokémon to her name, though that number could now be bumped up to a grand total of four, maybe five, a small backpack carrying the bare minimum of supplies, and enough money to last her at least another month before she ran out, especially if she kept going to the cafés that fed pokémon for free.

And not once had it ever crossed her mind to turn the child in to the proper authorities, to get her shipped back to where she would've legally belonged. Because despite what she may or may not have been willing to admit, she could see herself, and quite a few other people she knew to some degree in that little girl.

Every time she looked at the girl, she could see it. A ghost of a past she'd left to haunt her shadows, the same brilliant, screaming fire that had blazed in her own when she was younger, burning its own proclamation of defiance in brown eyes just this side of red. She could see a girl only a year old at most, just as tiny backpack strapped to her back and possibly even more unprepared, only two pokémon, not three to her name, and just as hateful of her own home.

She'd wondered if she'd looked back when she'd left Pallet, or if she'd simply kept walking until her legs couldn't carry her any farther.

Despite popular belief, pokémon trainer wasn't nearly as well-received as it was made out to be. Not many parents were willing to send their young, inexperienced children out, and it wasn't always the most idea career choice for anyone.

It was a popular form of entertainment, to be certain, watching strange and powerful creatures of all shapes, colors, and sizes fight or perform on a stage. But behind the scenes of the cameras and the out of the cities where there was nothing to do but train and travel, capture more to add to the strength of a team growing or already powerful in their own way. It was a vastly different story, one many children never got the chance to see.

Because, despite the glitz, the glam, the complete wonder that came with the responsibilities that was a pokémon trainer, it was also a very dangerous, very life-threatening job.

There was always the chance one could lose a limb during a training session, or even die while scaling a mountain or cave, or get so lost in a forest that they could never find their way out. There was no guarantee that you would come home safe, if you even came home at all.

So yes, it admittedly, wasn't nearly as popular as most might think. But it certainly wasn't such a rare profession either. Provided one got pass the hurtle that was a sensible parent, one could find that many people, regardless of how young or old they were when they started, thrived as pokémon trainers.

It didn't matter in the end. None of it did, not the past she'd hidden in her own shadows and left to rot because she wouldn't go home if you'd paid her, not the little girl she'd spent an entire night bandaging up because as well as she walked she was still very hurt, not the four pokémon sitting around the girl and not the six that seemingly never left her side.

She had decided that it wasn't anyone's business where this little girl was anymore. Because conveniently by all laws and rights, once she was recognized as trainer, she was, to an extent, an adult.


Nearly a month later had found Ashe sitting across a table from a woman who didn't even know her name, eating a breakfast comprised of enough pastries and sweets to make most people diabetic, fiddling with her too long hair and wondering blatantly if she should get it cut or not.

And maybe Diantha could read minds, Ashe still wasn't entirely sure, or maybe she was really just that easy to read, because as drowned in her thoughts as she had been, she hadn't heard anything when the champion had started speaking.

"Dear, are you not hungry?" the woman asked, giving her the look she'd come to associate with a prodding sense to elaborate on her thoughts. How the woman was able to order both people and pokémon around without actually saying a word baffled her to no end, and probably always would.

Red had been capable of the same thing if she remembered correctly, only it was limited to pokémon at most and the few people who knew him well enough to understand what he wanted through sheer change of facial expression and liberal usage of glares and blank stares. It a little more physical with his pokémon though if what she'd seen on TV was true. The man was able to order his pokémon about with a simply snap of the finger.

Diantha had him beat by miles. All she had to do was spare a single glance, and the whole battle was won.

"No, it's not that… It's just…" She twisted the captured lock of hair around her fingers, surveying the knots even her own mother hadn't been able to tame. "This must sound so stupid… But… How much would it cost to get your hair cut?" She finally spit out, giving the woman what had to be the most pleadingly lost look she'd ever managed.

"You want to cut your hair?"

"Yes, it's so long it keeps getting in the way, and Arceus knows it's too much of a mess at this length to take care of properly and…" At that point she was really just bullshiting the woman and making up reasons that hopefully wouldn't make her sound like a complete idiot.

"Well, depends on how much you want to get cut off, and what else you'd want to do with it."

"So pricey?"

"Very. But that doesn't mean you can't afford it."

"How? I don't have nearly enough money." Diantha quirked a delicate eyebrow at that response, and Ashe couldn't help but blink as the woman smiled at her in such a conspiratory way that Ashe was actually concerned about what the woman had in mind.


"Diantha, darling, it's been so long!" The overly cheery voice had Ashe hiding behind the champion in seconds, eyes wide knees shaking for a reason she wasn't about to think about for any length of time.

"Madame Cheveu, it had been a while, hasn't it?" The champion greeted, smiling innocently as she rested a hand reassuringly on the suddenly skittish trainer's own. "I'm sorry to not have visited, but as you can probably tell, I've been very busy lately."

"Oh, I'm certain! The life of a movie star leaves no room for rest, especially when they also double as champion of an entire region and its league. You really must let me do a touch up though, it looks like your bangs are growing long again."

"Maybe, but I'm not here for myself this time around." It was the only warning she had gotten before the champion unceremoniously pulled her out from her impromptu hiding spot, essentially throwing her under a bus in the form of a woman with long black hair pulled into a low ponytail and a yellow streak along the bangs.

"Oh my!" The woman cooed, bending down slightly to get a good look at her new customer. "She's so cute! And all that hair! My dear, I'm shocked you've been able to handle it." She frowned then, running her fingers through the tangled mess before gently pulling the strands apart. "Well, it's of no matter really. But we should probably be getting started, were there any styles you have in mind?"

Suddenly the room spun wildly, a sinking feeling hitting her in the gut as she was yanked down the two stairs separating what must've been the waiting room from the actual salon. Diantha was not far behind them, watching with an amused smile as the woman rather unceremoniously dropped Ashe into one of the many chairs placed at the sinks and flung some kind smock over her.

"I've never done this before…" She admitted, wide eyed as the woman smoothly twisted around the champion's form, grabbing up several hair products Ashe had probably never heard of along the way. "I just kind of wanted to get it cut…"

"I see… Any input Diantha dear?" At the question the champion shrugged, just as smooth and graceful as the apparent hair stylist currently back to running her fingers through her hair.

"Something functional for a young trainer who travels a lot. But other than that… Surprise us!" The stylist grinned at that, face lighting up with barely contained excitement before grabbing a rather strange looking brush. "Dear, don't look so panicked, I'd trust this woman with my life if I knew she could battle at all."

"Hey!" The woman chirped, looking at the champion offended, she pouted for a couple of minutes, before going back to her apparently very usual happy demeanor. "The name's Bella Cheveu. It is nice to meet you…"

"Ah…"

"Charletta," Both turned to the champion, gazes a mixture of confusion and suspicion as the woman gave her typical disconcerting smile to dissuade any doubt. "Aisling Charletta, I've taken her in as a favor to a friend."

"Oh, I see." Bella chirped, a similar winning smile decorating her own expression as she suddenly whipped out a pair of scissors. "Well, since your hair is so long, and so tangled and curly, we'll cut half of it off, wash it, see if we can't detangle it, and then we'll blow dry and go from there. Does that sound alright with you?"

"Ah, yes!"

"Good, now let's begin. I promise by the time we're done, you'll feel like a new you."


A/N. So how's everyone been? I hope you all aren't too upset with the wait, but I thank you for your patience! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading! Please leave a review, and see ya!