"You're just full of surprises, you know?"

Meeting You

By KrystalClear101

"People tell me I'm full of a lot of things."

Chapter Fourteen

"Eh? What's this? Your hair is surprisingly soft." May exclaimed. After Ash granted her permission to explore his ravenous locks, she immediately sank her fingers into his mess of dark hair. Based on its daily wild appearance, she was expecting it to be rough, almost prickly like. Imagine her surprise when her fingers felt a soft, thick texture of hair.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked, a tad bit offended. He didn't particularly care about how his hair looked at times but he always took care of it. As best as he could, anyway.

"I just wasn't expecting that." She shrugged slightly, retracting her hand back to her person. Ash had pretty much done the same after she asked to touch his hair. So now they were left staring at each other silently, the only sounds being Pikachu's faint snoring at the foot of the bed and the fall of rain just outside their window.

Ash's eyes stayed glued to at least some part of May's face, but it was an absent stare. He wasn't really paying attention to the fact that he was staring right at her nose. No more than May was paying attention to the fact that she was doing pretty much the same thing. Only, her eyes were constantly moving from his nose to his eyes, up to his forehead, down to his cheeks and those weird things he called birthmarks.

"Are those really birthmarks or did you have a stroke of rebellion and get tattoos?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. Ash cocked a brow before a smile broke out across his face.

"Tattoos? Are you kidding? Why would I do that?" he laughed, turning over on his back, staring at the dark ceiling. May hummed in response, also turning on her back. She spread her arms out, purposefully whacking Ash in the process.

"What's wrong with getting tattoos?" she asked.

"Nothing, I guess. It's just not my thing. I mean, what happens if I don't like it?" he asked.

"Commitment issues, eh? That's not good." She joked in a sing song voice but Ash frowned until she slapped her palm against his forehead in a playful gesture. He flinched, touching the tingling skin before staring at her incredulously.

"I do not have commitment issues…do I?" his tone came out a little uncertain, which caused the slight upturn of May's lips as she sat up on her elbows to stare at him. He switched his gaze to her figure and watched as she turned over on her stomach, still resting her weight on her elbows.

"Well let's see. Have you ever given up on something?"

"No."

"Are you constantly changing your mind at the last minute?"

"No."

"Are you afraid to talk about the future?"

"No?"

"Do you have more than one personality?"

"What? No!"

"Then your answer is no! You do not have commitment issues! Congrats!" May praised him with a wink and the upward jut of her thumb. Ash hummed to himself as he too sat up, his back resting on the headboard. Scratching his head awkwardly, he turned to her with an unsettling expression.

"What's with that face?"

"How do you…how do you know so much?" he felt himself going out on a limb by asking the question. Mostly because every time he asked, she always found some way of avoiding the subject or giving him a less than satisfying answer in favor of focusing on something else. This was the part of May's personality that he found the most intriguing. Rather, the part that he knew the least about so of course he'd be the most interested in it. Especially since she seemed so allusive about it.

"Ash, why the sudden interest?" she asked with a sly expression.

"Huh? I'm curious, I guess. Do all girls know this much about love?" he asked.

"Some do." She shrugged. "Sometimes it's instinct or intuition. Other times it's experience."

"What about you?" he wasn't sure why he was suddenly curious about her and her knowledge on the subject of love, he just was. He wondered where all her wisdom came from. If she watched a lot of movies, or if she read tons of books, or if she just was naturally full of wisdom. Did she have that weird intuition or was all this knowledge stemmed from previous experiences?

"Let me be mysterious for a little while longer, 'kay?"

He wanted to know now more than ever.

Eventually the two of them drifted off to sleep, or at least that's what Ash thought. While he slumbered noisily on his side of the mattress, May awoke with a start eyes wide and fearful. After a few seconds of inaudible breathing she managed to calm her raging heart. Slowly, she crept from underneath the blankets, as not to disturb her partner, and moved to stand by the window.

In the distance, thunder crashed in time with the lightning flashing, momentarily lighting up the dark colored sky. Just for an instance the lightning lit up the span of the room, giving a clear view of her face, momentarily illuminating deep sadness reflected in her blue eyes. A disease even she, herself didn't particularly understand.

Just as lightning once again struck the clouds, May once again depart from the confines of room, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

It wasn't until the storm began nearing closer to the ship that a very startling crash or thunder woke Ash from his deep sleep. Startled awake by the noise, his eyes popped open while his entire body tensed in response to being wrenched from his dreams. Soon his ears picked up on the sound of pelting rain against the bedroom window.

That's when he came to the conclusion that it was storming out.

Groaning a bit, he turned over on his side, preparing to fall back asleep. Only, something didn't seem right. So he turned over again to see May's side of the bed was empty. Not only that, but it was cold. So he switched his gaze to the bathroom. The door was open and the light was off. He was the only one in the room, save for Pikachu who had also been stirred by nature.

That's when he realized that May was gone.

"Where'd May go?" he called out to his partner who, in return, stretched out his body before murmuring out a response. Ash frowned significantly before pushing the covers back and standing. He looked around the room and everything was relatively in the same place as when they laid down earlier. His backpack and her fanny pack were still here as well as both of their belts.

This worried him. Not that he considered the ship to be dangerous enough for May to carry her pokémon with her at all times but the fact that she didn't anyway bothered him. What if something were to happen and she needed them? Like if the ship started to sink? What would happen? He didn't like thinking pessimistic thoughts but he wasn't in the mood to be optimistic either.

"We better go look for her." He resolved. Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder just as he slid on his shoes. Grabbing the remaining room key, he left out the door, dashing down the hallway as the storm continued to rage on. He had no idea where he was supposed to look, only that he had to do it fast. He wasn't sure what this girl was up to, leaving the room at this time of night in the middle of a storm no less. The only thing he was knew was that finding her was the main priority.

He continued a steady jogging pace until he came upon the door that led to the main deck area. Through the glass he could see the storm raging on in full force with rain falling in all directions and thunder rumbling at fifteen seconds intervals.

And he felt himself pause in his search for just a moment to take in the sheer ambience of it all. He had always sort of revered nature for its beauty but the scene that lie before him was strikingly terrifying yet strangely magnificence, so much that he found himself lost, suddenly feeling very small compared to the rest of the world.

"Pikapi!" an excited shout and a few hearty tugs from his starter was enough to pull him from his dazed state to look past the scenery and give attention to what, or whom, he had originally left the comfort of his room for. Hands slammed against the glass of the door while his brown eyes squinted at the blurry, figure standing on the deck amidst this unforgettable storm. He hoped to God above that it wasn't May. But that pajama set looked dreadfully familiar under the flash of lightning.

That was all it took for him to go rushing out into the mess.

"May!" he called, shielding himself from the rain. He left Pikachu inside as he ran out to get his partner. She sat crouched on the deck with her knees pulled up to her chest, her face planted against the skin of her thighs. She was soaked to the bone, clothes clinging to her form like a second skin while her drenched locks whipped around widely with the call of the wind.

"May, what are you doing!" he shouted as he inched towards her stationary form. Still no movement. He grimaced, quickening his pace before kneeling beside her, placing his hands on her shoulders, trying to ignore just how chilled her skin felt beneath the thin pajamas top.

Her head rose in response to the contact and she soon met Ash's look of concern with a gaze that caused his blood to run cold. She didn't seem to be aware of her surroundings nor of the fact that she was soaked beyond belief.

"Ash?" she called out quietly. "What are you doing here?"

"What am—! What are you doing? Out here in the rain?" His tone went up an octave as he twisted her body around to face him, his fingers digging into her shoulders while his gaze became stern. What kind of question was that for her to ask? And why was she out here? What was she doing?

"I…I don't know." She replied, looking over her shoulder at the water sweeping over the deck and into the ocean below. She tucked in her bottom lip before loosening the grip on her knees, letting her arms rest on the floor of the deck. Ash gazed at her warily before standing, deciding it was probably best to get back inside as soon as possible.

"Come on, let's go back to the room." He suggested with a sigh. He watched as she too stood, just inches away from him with her gaze lingering somewhere on his chest. His arm twitched at his side, resisting a foreign urge to wrap it around her shoulder. But did the situation call for that? Would it be seen as a sigh of comfort? How would she respond?

'At this point, I guess all logic has been thrown away…' were his thoughts as he pulled her to his side, the two of them walking back to the glass door where Pikachu sat waiting with a worried expression etched onto his little face.

It was awkwardly silent once the three of them walked into the shared room. Awkward on Ash part for he had no idea what to say to her. Part of him was a little upset at her for pulling such a stunt. Another part was worried that something was really wrong. And another was dreading the fact that this could be just one of her weird ways of teaching him another life lesson about love.

So he busied himself with getting towels from the bathroom for them to dry off with. When he reentered he found May seated on the floor, hugging her knees, only her head was leaning back against the bed. He moved to sit next to her, handing over the towel in the process.

"Thanks," she muttered. He grunted in response while covering his head with the towel, not really feeling up to drying himself off. He heard May shuffle beside him, probably drying her hair while he sat still, trying to conjure up a way to approach her and the situation at hand.

"You wanna talk about what just happened?" he started.

"I don't really know what happened." Came her reply.

"Oh," dejected, he also started drying his hair.

"Thank you, for coming to get me." Pause.

"I was worried! Why would you do something like that?!" Surprise.

"I—I just-"

"Don't ever do anything like that again!" he hadn't meant to shout at her, honestly. It just came out like word vomit. It was like her gratitude triggered some pent of frustration the was centered around her weird actions. Not only that but the frustration about not knowing anything about her. About not being able to connect with her like his other friends. This frustration about not being able to help her. At all.

Even though was she was sitting right next to him, she suddenly felt so far away.

"I won't." he snapped out of his rage to her see her gaze locked on her damp knees as she stood up from the floor. And he immediately felt terrible for snapping at her like that.

"May, I'm-"

"I won't do anything like that again. I promise." She smiled before walking to the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Ash fell back onto his haunches, burying his head in his hands. How could he shout at her like that? After what happened, what with finding her outside in the middle of a storm of all places, shouting was the last thing he should've done.

But strangely, all he could think about was her smile and how right it seemed at that moment.

To Be Continued.

A/N: I'm a day late annnnnnnnnd I'm sorry. Yeah, that's about all I have to say at this given moment. So what'd you think of this chapter? I'm not going to give any thoughts or synopsis. So just write out your thoughts, comments, questions, concerns. Ok?

Thanks to:Tbroome535, DavidShawnMichael, Dzchan94, Katherine Loves Kisses, joaquincabrera2, hungergamesfanatic789, Midnightmoon602, rainbowpikachu123, Tucker1901, KillerBeatle908, The Konoha's Booze Hound, Gaurdian125, willy008, luis1113, and my 100th reviewer PurpleRock!

If I wasn't a poor college student I'd send all of you guys boxes of pocky! I really would. Anyway, next chapter will be updated on a Friday in the near/distant future :) So be on the look out! Check those emails and alerts! See you in chapter 15!

Krystal

Please excuse any and all mistakes. I'm real tired. U_U going to bed now. G'night!