I'm hungover again, so I can't write anything good for my other stories. Thus, here's another chapter for y'all since I already finished this story last week. :P But I really am done drinking for a month. I'm too old for this.

While I wasn't a fan of the high school saga, I only did it to get to the adult part. These chapters have more effort (in my opinion) and should be good! Enjoy!~

Chapter 19

5 Years Later

"Mommy, look!" a little girl with long brown hair and dark viridian eyes exclaims while she holds her mother's hand.

The woman follows her daughter's finger as they see a blue jay in the tree. Smiling, she says, "It's very pretty, right, Ava?"

Ava grins at her mom and nods. "Let's hurry home! I want to play with Uncle Silver!"

The woman's deep green eyes look at her daughter lovingly. "Okay! Race you!" She says as she lets go of the 4 year old's hand. The two brunettes run down the block giggling with Leaf closely behind her daughter.

Soon, they arrive at the apartment complex where they greet the doorman and take the elevator up. Once they're in their apartment, a sweet aroma hits their noses. Ava runs into the kitchen and screams, "Uncle Silver!"

Leaf giggles as she follows her daughter in greeting the man with long red hair. Silver smiles at them and he picks up little Ava. "Well, hello, Ava! Did you want to help me cook dinner?"

She nods enthusiastically while Leaf gives the man an apologetic look. "You should've let me cook, Silver! You already work so hard."

He shakes his head with a grin. "It's fine, Leaf. I got off early just so I could cook for my favorite niece."

"I'm your only niece!" Ava pouts.

Leaf puts her hands up to let Silver know he is on his own with the little argument. "She's all yours." the woman laughs as she decides to help tidy up the apartment.

After Leaf had left Pallet Town, she moved to Goldenrod City with her cousin Silver because he just started working at Johto Enterprises, a sub-company of Poke' Enterprises. Silver has two childhood friends who are currently living in the same apartment building as him, and they have a 5 year old son, Ethan. Ethan plays with Ava often; the two kids are best friends.

Seeing her cousin with his two childhood friends, Jimmy and Marina, often makes Leaf sad because the three remind her of her, Ash, and Gary. Gary. She doesn't know what he's doing. She's completely cut him out of her life, so she hasn't even so much as searched him up on the internet. Whatever he is doing is none of her concern since he made that very clear 5 years ago.

Now, Ash...Leaf wanted to watch college basketball and see him play, but she can't even look at a basketball anymore. It's not the same and brings back too many painful memories. Fortunately, Silver only played it as a hobby when he was younger, so he doesn't bring up the sport. Leaf hopes that whatever Ash is doing now, he is happy. He deserves that much after what he had to go through towards the end of senior year.

She never got to properly say goodbye to Ash or Misty, but Leaf just didn't have the courage to. She just wanted to leave and never come back to that town full of painful memories. As for Misty, Leaf has no idea where the redhead is or what she is doing either. Hopefully, Misty and Ash are happy wherever they are because they should be out of college for a year now.

College. Leaf sighs as she remembers that she never went to college. Being pregnant and then raising a newborn on her own takes too much time. Plus, she was getting over her heartbreak and pain. Fortunately, Silver is here for everything, but she does feel bad relying on him all the time.

She works at the local flower shop near the rec center north of town. With Ava starting kindergarten this year, Leaf can work more often now. Moreover, No one has questioned her about Ava's father, which the brunette is grateful for.

Jimmy, Marina, and Ethan come over for dinner, to Ava's delight. After dinner, the little girl and Ethan run off to play in her room while the adults enjoy some wine in the living room. "We're expecting!" Jimmy happily exclaims as he toasts his wine glass with Marina's water cup.

"Whoa! Congrats!" Leaf smiles at her new friends.

"So you're going to have another kid before getting married?" Silver chuckles at the couple blushing shyly.

"Marriage isn't for everyone." Marina says. "But it would be nice." the bluenette smiles at her boyfriends who sheepishly returns one back.

"Hey! I'm happy for you two!" Leaf reassures them as she kicks Silver to stop grumbling. Her cousin is the sweetest person in the world when it comes to Ava, but other than that, he's a real grouch.

The adults continue to talk some more until Ava and Ethan come running over to their parents. Leaf gives her daughter a questioning eyebrow as the little girl's dark viridian eyes gaze widely at her. The woman instantly knows Ava is going to try and convince her to do something. "Yes, Ava?"

"Can we go to Ethan's game tomorrow!" the little girl can barely contain her excitement as she jumps up and down in front of her mom.

Leaf can't help but giggle at Ava's actions. She then looks at Jimmy and Marina. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah! Can they, mom? Dad?" Ethan says with the same excitement as his friend.

Marina smiles while Jimmy ruffles Ethan's hair. "Sure! It'll be at the rec center north of the city." The bluenette tells them.

Leaf then looks back at Ava and smiles with a nod. This causes the two children to scream happily as they hug each other before running off. The brunette then turns her attention back to the couple. "What kind of game is this?"

"Oh! Since me and Silver used to play as kids," Leaf gulps. He better not say what she thinks he will say. "It'll be his first basketball game." Jimmy tells her.

Leaf takes a deep breath before looking over at her confused cousin. "Can you take Ava?"

"Wait. What? I thought you just agreed to do it? And I work tomorrow." Silver says.

"Uh. If you're busy, Leaf. We can take her." Marina offers, which causes the younger woman to let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." She gives the Johto natives a warm smile. "I might work tomorrow, so I wasn't sure. You know how kids can convince you of anything with those puppy dog eyes." She sheepishly laughs. Fortunately, her friends don't question her strange behavior.

Sinnoh

"What do you mean I'm being relocated?" exclaims an angry spiky auburn haired man.

"Look, Gary, this is a good thing!" the older man says.

"How? I'm very successful here, and now you're moving me?"

"It's a promotion! You're being promoted to a finance department lead in the Johto branch, but if you don't want it, I can offer it to Paul."

Gary pauses. A promotion? He never thought of that as being an option. Plus, Paul has a girlfriend in Sinnoh, so moving is probably more difficult for the purple haired man. Gary smiles at the chairman. "You should've said so earlier, sir."

"I'm glad you seem to like the idea. When can you start?" the chairman asks.

"I can start next week." Gary is excited at the growth in the company he first started off at as an intern while at Veilstone University.

"Great! We will pay for the relocation fees, but I expect you to be in Goldenrod City Monday morning! I know I will be hearing good things from you there!"

The young man stands up to shake his hand. "Thank you, Mr. Poke'! You won't be disappointed."

After high school, Gary had gone to college in Veilstone University. While he did get in due to his grandfather's recommendation, he is a very bright student who excelled academically and socially. Of course, Gary resumed his playboy and partying habits, but he graduated at the top of his class. While a junior in college, he got an internship with Poke' Enterprises, although the Oak last name helped with that. However, Gary shows he is more than just his last name as he thrived in the position, which resulted in him being hired straight out of college.

A Few Days Later

Even though Poke' Enterprises will be paying for a moving and packaging company to move his stuff, there are a few things Gary wants to personally pack. He doesn't trust the grimy and careless fingers of strangers. Anyway, Gary doesn't have many things he wants to pack on his own; just a small box of personal belongings. At last, he reaches for the last item.

Flashback

"Here you go!" Mrs. Ketchum rushes over to the teens as they are doing homework at Ash's house. Usually they'd be at Gary's, but Mrs. Ketchum wanted to cook them a nice meal as well as telling them she has a gift for them. She places 4 picture frames on top of their homework on the dining room table.

Each photo is the same: in the middle are Ash and Gary while Gary holds the championship trophy and Ash holds his MVP trophy. Misty is standing to the side of Ash as he has an arm around her shoulders, and Leaf is standing next to Gary who has an arm around her shoulders. All 4 teens are smiling brightly since they had just won the Kanto High School Basketball tournament.

"Whoa! Thanks, Mrs. Ketchum!" Leaf exclaims as she grabs a frame. The picture was just taken a week ago, so all of them are still on the winning high.

"Thanks, Mrs. K!" Gary grins as he grabs one and pops off the back.

Misty and Ash thank Mrs. Ketchum as they grab a frame too, but they look at Gary in confusion as he pulls off the back of the frame. "What are you doing?" Misty asks him.

He uses his sharpie and writes something before handing it to Leaf and taking her frame. "So when I get famous, you can sell this for money." He grins at the unamused brunette.

"Hey! That's a good idea! Let's sign each others!" Ash chimes in excitedly as he pops off the back of his frame.

"That's why we have yearbooks, guys." Leaf sweatdrops at the boys. Misty just gives her a defeated look before popping off the back of her frame too. "Fine. Let's do this." Leaf chuckles as everyone passes their frames to each other so they can sign the back of the photos.

Flashback Over

It's been too long for Gary to remember what's written on the back of the photo he's holding. He hasn't popped off the back of the frame since the day they all signed them. It's too painful, but he somehow found himself packing the picture when he left Pallet Town. The auburn haired man sighs as he wraps the frame in newspaper before carefully placing it in the box.

At Veilstone University, Gary had met Paul Shinji and his girlfriend Dawn Berlitz where the three became friends. Sometimes it pains the Kanto native when he thinks about his original friend group before Misty had joined. It was just like this: 2 boys and a girl; however, Paul and Dawn are dating.

Gary hadn't talked to any of his ex-friends in years. He hasn't considered them friends since his car accident, and he hasn't talked to any of them since the day him and Ash fought in his living room. He doesn't know what they're doing, but according to Gramps, Ash is in the army and single. Gramps occasionally talks to Mrs. Ketchum, so Gary gets unwanted updates on the Ketchum boy.

Other than the rare Ash updates, Gary doesn't know where or what the girls are doing. Maybe Misty actually went to Cinnabar Island University? But seeing as how Ash dipped out on his basketball scholarship, Gary wouldn't be too surprised if she changed her plans too.

Gary sighs as he thinks about his last ex-friend, and one of his oldest friends he's ever had. Leaf. He groans. They just had to sleep together and make everything one huge mess. He was drunk, so he doesn't understand why sober her would just sleep with him? Why'd she have to go and complicate everything? And then Ash tells him that she up and left without telling anyone? Leaf must've had a mental breakdown or something.

The man frowns as he thinks about his old life. This is why he parties and hooks up with people. It blocks out the pain and loneliness. He searches in his phone for one of his loyal hookups. Since he's flying out tomorrow, he might as well have some last minute fun in Sinnoh.

Yeah! Some ikarishipping! Maybe it'll come up again later, but it's not the focus of this story.