A "Date" with May

-The Next Day-

Ash woke up early in his hotel room and stretched. He pulled back the curtain and opened the sliding door and walked out to his balcony. In the distance, with the sunrise peeking over it, was Mount Silver, the home of Ash, Ritchie, May and Paul for the last 11 years. He breathed in the morning air ready to start the day.

Ash went down to the main lobby and ate some toast. Once he was finished with breakfast, he made the trip down to the clearing where his Pokemon were. He sported a pair of swim trunks, intending on jumping in the nearby pond.

Ash entered the area and saw his and Paul's Electivires were having an intense staring contest while exchanging volts of electricity with each other. Lapras and Seismitoad were using mist on an overheated Azumarill that was passing by. In the sky was Ritchie's Charizard, Ash's Salamence and Ash's Charizard flying in circles. The rest of the Pokemon were either with their close companions or training.

Just then May came into the clearing wearing her red bikini. "Ash! I didn't think you would be here," May said in a cheery voice. "I thought we'd be having our 'date' later."

"I just came down here to see if the Pokemon needed anything. Then I was going to swim for a while," Ash replied. "You wanna just hang out here for the day?"

"That sounds nice," May said. "Sounds like the perfect date to me!"

May entered the cool water and sank in. Ash removed his jacket and shirt revealing his abs. May swam up towards the shore of the lake and began to chat with Ash.

"Well, well, well, Mr. Ketchum," She said resting her chin on her hands. "Are you trying to impress me?"

"Hey, I didn't get these overnight," Ash said with a chuckle. "It's from-"

"An intense training regiment, which took years to perfect, that has further allowed you to become more in tune with the Aura that surrounds you," May said in a taunting voice. "I've heard it all before."

This caused Ash to freeze in place and laugh at himself. "Haha, I guess you're right."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I like hearing you talk about your duties as a Guardian. It's something you're passionate about, like Pokemon Battles."

"Ain't that the truth."

"Just hurry up and get in here," May said while doing a backstroke away from the trainer.

Ash took the opportunity to climb on top of his Snorlax's stomach, who was sleeping in the shallow end of the water, and cannonballing into the pond, splashing the coordinator with water. This led to May splashing Ash with water, which caused a playful fight to begin.

Afterwards, the two had a Blastoise race around the circumference of the pond. Ash stood on top of his Blastoise's back riding him like a surfboard, with Dewott on the back with him.

Eventually, Ash won the race and the two jumped onto the shore. Ash cheered and began a victory dance, but was soon tackled to the ground by May. The two layed on the ground, laughing and enjoying each other's company. The two trainers sat up and placed their feet in the water of the pond.

"I'm not gonna lie to you May," Ash commented. "I am so glad you invited me to hang out today."

"I agree," May said. "You're a pretty fun dude to hang out with."

"So… I might have a gift for you," Ash said, pulling his jacket over to him and unzipping one of the pockets.

"Why Mr. Ketchum," May said in a comedic tone. "A gift on the first date? You must be trying to impress me."

"I mean, it's something that's already yours," Ash said, pulling May's white bandana out of his jacket, which was neatly folded. "So it's not really a new gift."

May took the article of clothing and was amazed at how it was free of her bloodstains from the night before. "It looks brand new!"

"I can't tell you how much scrubbing and stain remover it took to clean it," Ash said. "But it's your favorite one so I knew I had to at least try and clean it up for you."

May tied the bandana back on her head and pulled Ash into a tight hug. "Thank you so much. I can't even begin to tell you how much this means to me."

Ash smiled, but then his face reverted into a weird expression. He pulled his feet out of the water and exclaimed, "Something just touched my leg!"

May screamed and pulled her legs out of the water as well. Silhouetted in the water was a dark blue circle, around a foot or so in diameter. The two trainers leaned in closer to observe it. "What is it?" May asked inquisitively.

A blue head with what looked like two tentacles with blue balls on the end popped above the surface of the water in front of them.

"Mana," The blue Pokemon said. "Mana!"

"Oh my god," May said in an excited tone. "Manaphy!"

Manaphy jumped out of the water and into Ash's arms. "Missed you, Ash," Manaphy said.

"I missed you too, Manaphy," Ash responded. "Talk about long time, no see."

"Mama!" Manaphy said with extreme joy, jumping into May's arms.

"I've missed you so much," May said, almost crushing Manaphy in a hug. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Samiya?"

"Temple no need me," Manaphy said. "I wasn't happy so it let me leave to find my Mama."

May held Manaphy in between Ash and her. "And I'm very happy that you are here."

Ash looked over and stared into May's sapphire colored eyes, the ones that entranced him last night. Even today they still had that effect on him. May reached over and touched Ash's face with one hand. She leaned in and pressed her lips to Ash's. Ash got a feeling of happiness sweeping over his body, but he was too paralyzed with emotion to kiss her back. Both trainers were accustomed to flirting with each other at Mt. Silver, but neither thought that it would go this far.

"I love you Ash," May said. "I need you to know that. I can't really say when I did, but I remember waking up one day just knowing I loved you. I was never really sure how you felt about me, but I just thought we would only ever be friends, you know. Now that that's out there, I think I'm gonna go back to my room. You wanna come with me Manaphy?"

"Mhm," The Sea Prince said, shaking its head.

Ash was astonished. May then stood up carrying Manaphy beginning to walk away but stopped when Ash grabbed her arm. Getting up to his feet, Ash pulled May up close to his body without crushing Manaphy. He tilted her chin up and pressed his lips against hers, showing her that he too was in love with her.

"May, I care about you more than you know. Probably more than you can imagine, if we're being honest. I've always thought of you as my best friend, but now I see that it's so much more than that," May smiled as the two kissed once more. "Maybe we should give this dating thing a shot." This caused Manaphy to giggle.