"Oh?"

Ash cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow at Iris. His sienna eyes just daring her to speak up. His hands curling in around his sides, small wisps of aura floating about. But no, it wasn't how Ash usually balled his fists in excitement, or in the way he did it when hot anger usually lashed out at Iris because of her "You're such a kid!" comment.

No, Ash was calm. It was almost scary like that. His eyes were downright furious, but he gave off an aura of being unimpressed, maybe disappointment or amusement as well.

Iris was confused.

Instead of the usual whine and scream from Ash after her words, she received a side of Ash she'd never seen before.

This new... character isn't how Ash usually acted. This was like a whole new different person.

The Ash she knew was carefree.

The Ash she knew was naive and childish.

The Ash she knew... wasn't this person.

Of course, she wouldn't ever let Ash know that she was scared of him. Besides, who would be scared of a little kid? He'd get over this small phase and be back to normal the next day... right?

After a tense silence, she spoke up.

"W- Well, of course!" Iris got out. "You're always childish and you don't take time to train your Pokemon! You're always just so arrogant and naive. I know starting out as a ten year old is hard, but seriously, this is kind of a stretch. I can't believe I agreed to travel with you..."

Ash actually chuckled at that, but Cilan could hear a bitter undertone to it. Another unimpressed stare was given to Iris.

"You do understand," he drawled, "that I'm older than both of you, right? Plus, you really don't need to travel with me. I've done this plenty of times before."

"Now, now, Ash," Cilan tried intervening before it got too extreme. "Just apologize to Iris, okay? There's no need to lie even if it gives you the upper hand, excuses aren't nee-"

"You honestly think I would lie just so I can win this very unnecessary conversation?" There wasn't any anger, no accusation, just a tired resignation of someone who's been through too much.

Iris snorted, trying to hide her surprise of how Ash has been acting today. "Well, you definitely know how to lie. Like that time you told us Zekrom decided to just make a storm and blast your Pikachu! What type of childhood fantasy is that? Just face the fact that Pikachu isn't the strongest species."

Ash was honestly tired of being in Unova.

Don't get him wrong, the region and culture was great, but his travelling companions for the year were really getting on his nerves. They kept putting him down and all that—Ash usually wasn't sensitive, but right now, it was getting progressively harder to not be done with it all and snap at them.

He really didn't care at this point. Sure, they were insulting him, but Pikachu? His best friend and partner for seven years? Arceus, they were so in for it.

But Ash didn't snap. He was better than that. So he just grabbed his pokedex from his pocket, went to the recording of Zekrom, and threw it at Iris's face.

Okay, maybe he did snap. But just a little bit. But he did get a little laugh out of it.

That's fine. Although Unova wasn't his best region, Ash was getting better.

He let Iris and Cilan gawk at the recording, sighing and moving on into the forest.

"Come on, Pikachu," Ash smiled a real, genuine smile. "Let's go."

"Pika pi-ka!"

Although his companions weren't really companions at all, he always found love and family in his pokemon.