"Mmm! This latte is amazing! Don't you think so too, Goh?" Ash exclaimed before continuing to sip from his drink with gusto.

"Yeah! Who knew you could create so much variety of flavor with something as simple as coffee?" Goh replied, holding a frappucino in his hands.

"I sure am glad Mr. Leon recommended this place to us!"

Our favorite research fellows have gone to visit the 'Pokémon Café', a coffee shop that serves both trainers as well as their pokémon.

"If you boys need a refill, don't be afraid to ask me!" The café's barista, a young woman named Leah, told them from behind the counter.

"Pika-pi!" Pikachu waved at her in response. Meanwhile, Goh's Grookey stared at his own latte with confusion.

"Rookey, rookey!" Drawing its trainer's attention, Grookey pointed at the inside of its cup.

"Awww. What a cute Eevee!" Goh remarked, referring to the latte art Leah had made for Grookey.

"I always make sure to draw a pokémon I think is cute on the lattes I serve!" Leah explained.

"Mine had a Pikachu!" Ash told Goh with a happy smile.

However, Grookey continued to look confused. "You have to drink from it, Grookey!" Goh instructed.

Grookey took a tentative sip, but yelped and jumped back after it noticed the image of the Eevee dissolve into nothing. "R-Rookey…?" It looked at Goh with tears welling up in its eyes.

"Uh… it's just latte art, Grookey! Don't worry about it! It wasn't a real Eevee!" Goh hurriedly explained. Grookey glanced at him quizzically, but seemed to accept the explanation and resumed drinking the latte.

"I wish I could drink here every day!" Ash stated.

"Me too, though a part of me worries about how you'll behave after having drunk coffee…"

Ash pouted at him. "Don't you trust me?"

"After that time I let you eat all my candy and you nearly dug a trench around the lab by running laps around it over and over? Not really." Goh told him. Ash stuck his tongue out at him, but winked to let Goh know it was a light-heated gesture.

Having finished all of their drinks, Goh and Ash grabbed their pokémon and began to head for the exit. "Until next time, Ms. Leah! We'll be sure to stop by again in the fut-OH!"

Goh was interrupted when an old lady abruptly walked onto the café, accidentally knocking poor Goh onto the floor in her hurry. "Leah!" The unfamiliar woman cried out. "What is the meaning of this?"

Leah looked at her nervously. "Uh, meaning of what, Ms. Shelby?" She asked, shaking profusely and convincing absolutely no one that she didn't know what the other woman was talking about.

"The café! It's doing terribly! You promised me you were going to try and do better this month!" The older woman cried out. "If this keeps up, we're going to have to close our doors…"

"What?! No! You can't do that!" Leah protested. "We can't give up on the café, it's been my dream for so long…"

Ms. Shelby shook her head. "You have to think realistically, dear. I mean, look at this place. Only one barista and barely any room for guests. Why, I bet these two boys have been the only people to come in all day!"

Leah looked downcast. She didn't say anything, but just from her anguished face, Goh and Ash could tell that Ms. Shelby had been right on the money. Or lack thereof, in this case. "I…I'm sorry. I promise I'll do something about it, for real this time. Just… please give me some more time. That's all I ask."

Ms. Shelby sighed. "I'm too nice with you sometimes. Fine. But if things don't get better by the end of the month, I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do. I've already sunk enough money into this little pet project of yours as is." And with that said, Ms. Shelby exited the café as abruptly as she had entered it.

Goh was still rubbing his head from where it had hit the floor. "That woman needs to watch where she goes…" He mumbled.

"I'm sorry you had to see that…" Leah told them. "That was my financial associate, Ms. Shelby. She's a friend of my parents, very wealthy. When she heard me ramble on about how I wanted to make a café for humans and pokémon she thought the idea could go far, but…"

Leah sighed and buried her face in her hands. "I've just been letting her down ever since this shop opened. I don't know what to do."

"I don't understand. Leon told us your coffee shop was the best in the region! How can it be doing so poorly?"

"Oh, Mr. Leon said that? That's so nice of him… if only more of my costumers cared that much, maybe things wouldn't be so bad now." Leah muttered, though she seemed a bit happier.

Ash and Goh stared at her with concerned expressions, those kinds of concerned expressions that said 'we're gonna get involved until we make everything hunky-dory again like the wholesome children that we are'.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Ash asked her. "You know… to repay you for all the delicious coffee you made for us…"

Leah considered the offer for a moment. "Thanks so much for offering, but are you sure you're up for it? I mean, I'm nearly an adult myself and even I have trouble managing this place!"

"Of course we're sure! We've done stuff together you can't even imagine! Compared to saving legendary pokémon from Team Rocket, this'll be a cinch! Right, Ash?"

"Right!" Ash agreed and gave him one of his typical wholesome smiles.

Leah couldn't help but smile as well. "Great! Let me just get all of you your uniforms and we can start thinking of ways to help me make my dream become a reality!"

"Yeah!" Ash, Goh and their pokémon cheered in unison.

"How do I look?" Goh said while posing in his new barista uniform for Ash.

"You look absolutely perfect, honey!" Ash complimented with a huge grin. Goh beamed at him.

"Oh, I didn't know you two were dating. Interesting to see how kids these days are understanding that sort of thing so much quicker." Leah commented from behind the counter.

"Oh, I'm not sure 'understanding' is the best word to describe how Ash sees romance, but he sure can't get enough of me!" Goh bragged.

"Now then, I think for now what we should focus on is attracting costumers. We can't have a successful business establishment without costumers, after all!" Leah took out a few flyers from under the counter and handed them to the boys. "So can you place these in a few spots around town or hand them to people who might be interested?"

"I'll let Grookey and Pikachu do this so we can concentrate on being servers", Goh suggested. "Plus, that'll keep Grookey distracted and stop him from eating all the food himself!"

"Good idea, Goh!" Ash exclaimed as he gave his flyer to Pikachu, who was sitting on his shoulder. "Pikachu, make sure Grookey doesn't run off, alright?"

"Pikachu!"

"Hey… where is Grookey, anyway?" Goh remarked, noticing now that the green monkey had vanished from sight. "He better not be doing anything bad!"

Ash narrowed his eyes and looked around until his eyes landed upon the pantry. "Some noise is coming from inside there!"

Goh walked there and opened the pantry, finding Grookey stuffing himself full of sugar. The mischievous primate paused his gorging to look at his trainer with shame. "Grookey?" He said guiltily.

"Unbelievable!" Goh picked up his pokémon and explained the situation to him. "You're going with Pikachu to promote the coffee shop! And no eating until you get back, got it?"

Pikachu crossed his arms and shook his head at Grookey. "Pika…"

Grookey lowered his head and followed Pikachu out. "Grookey, grookey…"

"The nerve of my pokémon, sometimes…" Goh griped out loud.

Ash looked at his boyfriend with pride at how much he'd grown since his first days as a trainer. "Isn't he a darling?" He remarked to Leah.

"Your boyfriend is a very sensible individual, Mister Ketchum. I'm sure he'll have plenty of other ideas on how to help the café as the month wears on!" Leah told him.

"He's so amazing with pokémon! I bet he'll be a great parent when we get older!"

Goh stared at Ash with outrage and embarrassment. "ASH! WHY?"

Ash looked at him quizzically. "Did I say something wrong?"

Goh decided to draw Ash's attention back to what they were supposed to be doing (i.e. not fawning over one another like obsessive lovebirds). "Anyway, why don't you show us how to make some good coffee, Ms. Leah?"

"Just Leah is fine, boys, and sure! Come on over and look at my expresso machine."

Ash and Goh raced to the counter, with Ash whispering "This is gonna be so cool…" to himself as he walked.

Pointing to the coffee maker next to her, Leah stated "This is my pride and joy! My very own top-of-the-line expresso machine!"

The coffee machine was rather large, not like the ones Goh or Ash were used to seeing, and had a lot of buttons and gauges on the front. "That looks, uh… intimidating." Goh remarked.

"Don't be silly, it's simplicity itself! You just have to place the tamper correctly, use the right filter, make sure the water reservoir is filled up, pay attention to the pressure gauge to make sure it's at the proper level for a good-tasting coffee shot…" Leah continued to prattle on about how to use the coffee machine for a while.

"Oh boy, oh boy!" Ash repeated with sparkling eyes, excited to learn as much as he could.

"Oh, boy…", Goh said with a rather different tone of voice. "Is that how I sound to other people when I talk about pokémon?"

Meanwhile, Grookey and Pikachu ventured forth into the city, flyers in hand.

"Grookey, grookey grookey grookey!" Grookey sang aloud, having seemingly forgotten about his prior gaffe and acting as though he was fulfilling an important mission.

"Pika…" Pikachu shook its head at its partner, displeased at having to rein him in due to being the elder of the group. He pointed Grookey toward a couple sitting on a bench. "Pikapika pi!"

"Grookey, grookey!", the little monkey replied before charging ahead.

"Pika!"

Grookey jumped onto the bench and showed the potential costumers the flyer he was holding. "Groo!"

One of them, a woman, read what the flyer said out loud. "Come visit the Pokémon Café, where we serve the best coffee in the entire region? My, that sounds very interesting! Don't you think so, dearest?"

The man who was with her grunted. "I guess… not a big fan of coffee, though."

Grookey then tried to explain what the café was like, making miming gestures of Eevees melting away and pretending to wear glasses.

The couple chortled at the display. "Well, I don't know what any of that meant, but how can I refuse such a cute little pokémon?" The man remarked while giving Grookey a little pat. "Of course we'll go visit!"

Grookey crossed his arms pridefully as he watched the couple walk in the direction of the café.

"Pika-pika!" Pikachu exclaimed, impressed at Grookey's ability to use his cuteness to get people to do what they wanted.

The duo continued to promote Leah's shop for quite some time, unaware that they were being watched by a pair of binoculars.

And behind those binoculars, who else but Team Rocket?

"What are the twerps doing now?" Jessie questioned.

"Promoting a coffee shop, apparently."

"Wobbuffet!"

"But what does that even have ta do with researchin' pokémon?"

"I don't know, Meowth. But there's one thing I do know", Jessie replied, "If they're working at a coffee shop, that means Pikachu will have to spend a lot of time in one place… distracted… and ripe for the stealing!"

"So we tail Pikachu back to the coffee shop and wait for our chance!" James concluded. "Genius!"

"And maybe we'll even get da rest of the twoips' pokémon while we're at it!" Meowth added. "Da baws will be ovah da moon! Maybe he'll even give us a…"

"Promotion!" The trio cheered in unison. "Quickly, follow them at a distance, we don't want them to notice us…"

"So, how come you had those flyers ready to go but never used them?" Goh asked Leah.

"Oh, well you know, since it was just me working here, I was afraid of being away from the store! Because what if a costumer arrived while I was out distributing the flyers? That would have been terrible!"

"But…" Goh interjected, still doubtful. "How would costumers show up, if you never bothered to promote the café at all?"

Leah gulped. "I, uh… well… I mean, you guys did show up, right? And mister Leon did, too…"

"And how did he learn about this place?"

"He… uh, he confused it for a gym and tried to challenge me."

Goh sweatdropped. "Of course he did."

"Aww, you shouldn't give Ms. Leah such a hard time, Goh", Ash chided. "It's her first time running a business, after all!"

"Still, though…"

Before the conversation could progress any further, the door to the café creaked open. "Is this the pokémon café? I was invited by these two cute pokémon, and I thought it sounded interesting."

"A new costumer!" Leah remarked happily. "Why, yes, you've come to the right place. Please sit down and we'll take your order!"

The costumer sat down. "Give me a nice cup of latte, I'm not picky."

Ash and Goh shared a grin. "Time to show Leah what good students we are!"

"First, we grind the beans!" Ash stated while placing the portafilter underneath the grinder so that the ground beans fell into it.

"Then we tamp them!" Goh continued, removing the tamper from the machine and using it to apply pressure on the beans.

"And then, we just take the portafilter and put in under the, uh…" Ash stammered as he connected the portafilter to the coffee machine.

"The grouphead."

"Oh yeah! Thanks. And then we press this button, like so…"

Ash pressed the button for a single cup's worth of coffee, while at the same time, Goh picked up a cup he had filled with milk and held it underneath the machine's steam wand to heat it.

"And finally, we mix the milk into the coffee!" Ash let Goh pour the milk into the coffee cup, and the latte was finished! The boys shared a high-five over a job well done.

"Here's your latte, sir." Ash cheerfully stated as he brought the finished latte over to the costumer.

The costumer picked the cup of latte up. "It smells so good!" After taking a sip, he continued with "And it tastes even better!"

"Of course it does, we made it!" Goh declared proudly.

After finishing his drink, the man got up and bowed. "That was an incredible latte. I will definitely mention this coffee shop to my friends! We're all coffee aficionados, you see."

"Oh, that's some very high praise, then! Feel free to come back any time, mister!" Leah stated as she gave him his bill and received a few pokédollars back. Turning to Ash and Goh, she told them, "You did an excellent job, boys! Once business picks up a bit more, I hope I can start actually paying you back!"

"Don't worry about that sort of thing, we're just happy to be of help", Goh replied.

"Yep! 'Let's get involved 'till the problems get resolved', that's our motto!"

"Why does that sound like a quote from some old tv show…" Goh wondered. "But yeah, what he said."

"Then let's get ready to receive even more costumers!" Leah declared with renewed enthusiast.

And so they did – thanks to Pikachu and Grookey's efforts, the café began to be visited by many of the locals, human and pokémon alike. Eventually, as the night wore on, Goh, Ash and Leah couldn't help but feel overworked as they began to receive three or more costumers at the same time.

"Who knew running a coffee shop that's actually popular would be so time-consuming?" Leah wondered aloud.

"I mean, you probably would if you had actually been trying to make it popular, before…" Goh observed.

"Ssshh, Goh!" Ash reprimanded, putting his finger over Goh's mouth. "We only allow positive thoughts in this coffee shop!"

The door to the café opened once again. "More costumers?" Leah questioned. "But we're closed!"

Instead of a costumer, it was Grookey and Pikachu who walked in. "Groo-key! Groo-key! Groo-key!" Grookey cheered.

"Oh, hello there, boys! You clearly worked very hard today, as well!" Leah congratulated. "I think you all deserve a little reward for your effort."

She then made a few more lattes and shared them with her new coworkers. "Oh, hey!" Ash exclaimed. "Now they have our faces on them!"

"Pika-pi!" Pikachu concurred, looking at the pikachu art that was in the center of his cup.

"I'm very good at making latte art, if I do say so myself!" Leah bragged to them. "Maybe I'll start teaching you how to make your own tomorrow… but for now, I think we all deserve a little rest."

"How much money did we make today?" Ash asked her.

Leah opened the cash register. Then her shoulders slumped. "Not nearly enough, honestly…"

"So we're gonna need to attract even more costumers", Goh considered.

"The problem is, we're barely managing to serve this amount of costumers, so I'll have to hire more servers… but I won't be able to pay them, either, so I doubt anyone will agree…"

Goh thought for a second. "Maybe we could ask some of our friends if they have time to spare?"

"Hmmm… I don't know who it could be, though." Ash muttered, also trying to think.

At that moment, even more people walked in. "Excuse me", a posh voice asked. "We couldn't help but overhear. You are in need of people to help take care of your coffee shop?"

Ash, Leah and Goh turned their attention to the new arrivals. There was a man with swept-back blue hair, a woman with pink hair tied in a bun, a short man (boy?) with cat whiskers, and a large individual who appeared to have some kind of skin condition, since, well… his skin was blue.

Naturally, they were utterly unfamiliar to Ash and Goh, and certainly didn't resemble anyone they had ever met. "Who are you people?" Ash questioned.

"Just some concerned do-gooders who would like to provide some help!" The pink-haired woman explained.

Leah looked skeptically at the odd foursome. "But what would you get out of helping me out?"

"Just knowin' that we are helpin' out one of our city's local businesses is reward enough fer us!" stated the catlike man.

"Wobbuffet!"

"Well, that's very… generous of you all. I'm a little indisposed from all the work I did today, but please come by during the morning and I can show you the ropes, okay?" Leah told them.

"Excellent!" The blue-haired man said with a polite bow.

Then, turning his back to Leah and addressing his comrades, they shared a few devilish grins. "Da rat's in da bag, boys!" Meowth – er, excuse me, the feline-resembling individual, stated with a mean laugh.

"Well, then", the woman turned to face Leah once more. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms…"

"My name is Leah! What are yours, if you don't mind me ask-"

"Pleasure doing business with you, Ms. Leah! We'll see you tomorrow! Toodaloo!" And then, as quickly as they had arrived, the strangers were gone.

"That was… odd." Ash commented.

"At least they seem like they genuinely want to help", said Goh.

Pikachu was not so sure, though. "Pi-ka…" He grumbled with his arms crossed. He didn't trust those four one bit. In fact, he could just swear he knew them from somewhere…

"So that's why you couldn't help me cram for my test? You were busy working at some random coffee shop?" Chloe asked Goh with a frustrated glare.

"I couldn't help it! She would have gone out of business if we didn't do something!" Goh tried to explain.

"Yeah!" Ash agreed, still wearing his barista uniform from the previous night.

"Ash, why are you wearing that?"

"That's the uniform we wore! I guess he's just excited to go back there again."

"But didn't you say that she got four new baristas to help out?"

"That doesn't mean we can just quit without warning!" Ash protested. "We're gonna get involved 'till the problems get resolved!"

"Okay, I guess that's your catchphrase now", Goh noted, a bit weirded out. "But yeah, we're not gonna rest until the Pokémon Café is out of the red!"

"Pokémon Café?" Chloe repeated. That was the first time the name had come up in the conversation. "Why is it called that?"

"It serves both human and pokémon costumers", Goh explained.

"Eevui?" Eevee looked at Goh curiously.

"Oh, that's… interesting, I suppose." Chloe mumbled. She tried to ignore Eevee pawing at her and trying to get her attention.

"I think Eevee wants to check out the café", Goh observed.

"But… my schoolwork…"

"Eevuiiii!"

"Oh, fine." Chloe sighed and picked Eevee up. "If Eevee wants it so badly, I guess I have no choice."

"You say that, but I have this feeling you just wanted someone to push you into accepting…" Goh told her.

"Shush, you!"

Ash's eyes sparkled. "Why don't we bring all of our other friends, too? It would be great publicity for the café!"

"Good idea, Ash! I'm not sure all of them will be available, but we can at least tell them about it so they'll visit when they have time. Oh! Maybe I could make a website for it, too…"

"You guys are really invested in this café, huh?"

"We're just a pair of good… what was that word again… sama- samara…"

"Samaritans, Ash."

"Yeah! Summeraritans, that's us!"

Goh facepalmed in response, but decided to ignore Ash's gaffe for now. "Anyway, we should be heading back to the café, too. Those espressos won't serve themselves!"

Over the following days, the café only grew in popularity as people from various regions came to visit it.

"Mmm! This mocha is delicious!" An excitable green-haired girl remarked from her table.

"I knew you would like it, Mallow!" Ash told her, looking at her reaction to the drink with pride.

"So you're one of Ash's friends?" Leah inquired.

"Yep! His classmate, in fact!" Mallow replied. "We're on vacation right now, so I decided to come over here and check the restaurant Ash was working on! The part about it serving humans and pokémon interested me."

"Oh, I wouldn't call it a restaurant just yet, we only have coffee for now…" Leah muttered, mostly to herself.

"I want to have a restaurant that does the same thing one day! If you want, I can suggest some ideas!" Mallow suddenly got up and pulled Leah away to talk with her.

"Um, alright…"

Goh looked at the two girls with a nonplussed expression on his face. "That Mallow girl is really forceful, huh…"

"It'd be cool to have some solid food to go with the coffees, though!" Ash remarked, his stomach growling. "Just thinking about it makes me hungry."

"You do realize they'd be for the costumers only, right?" Goh asked. "Don't follow Grookey's example!"

"Grookey?!" Grookey yelled with outrage from Goh's shoulder.

Goh stared back at the little chimp. "You know what you did." He told him. Grookey slumped his shoulders in shame, looking deflated.

Meanwhile, Team Ro… the helpful quartet was busy cleaning all the used coffee cups, appearing disgruntled as they did so.

"Grrr! How come when de twoips are here, all we ever get ta do is clean or fix things? It's like dey don't trust us, or sumthin'!" Meowth griped.

"Wobbuffet!"

"To be fair", James replied. "I wouldn't trust us, either!"

"But we're in our disguises, so that shouldn't matter!" Jessie protested. "Was it because of that time I accidentally spilled all the coffee onto her clothes…?"

"It wouldn't be so bad if Pikachu would just sit still for a second. It must have given away flyers to everyone in this town twice at this point."

"Well, he's gonna have to come back here at some point! And that's when we'll grab him!" Jessie stated confidently.

Meanwhile, Leah returned from wherever her and Mallow had gone off to with several cooking items and utensils in her hands. "I have no idea how I got talked into this!" She remarked.

"Whoa, that's a lot of food!" Ash exclaimed, his mouth watering while Goh stared at his overeager boyfriend in judgment.

"I bought some tea bags, flour and bread, so I guess we can make things other than coffee now."

"Tea? Did someone mention tea?" A kind, albeit tired, voice asked from near the coffee shop's entrance. It's Chloe and Eevee!

"Oh, hi Chloe!" Ash greeted, before turning to Leah and saying "Our friend Chloe here is a bit of a tea fiend."

"A tea for me and a simple coffee for Eevee, if you would be so kind." Chloe requested, sitting down with Eevee in one of the tables.

"Right away! Er, how does one make tea, again?"

Goh and Ash fell down. "Don't tell me you've never made tea in your life!"

"…Is that bad?" Leah asked apprehensively.

"Don't worry, Ms. Leah! I don't know how to make tea, either!" Ash declared like it was something to be proud of.

"Why do you sound so happy about that?" Goh asked him.

"Because it means me and Ms. Leah have something in common, and having something in common with your friends is always nice!"

"I-I see…" Goh mumbled. Well, he wasn't necessarily wrong, but it did mean it fell up to him to complete Chloe's order. "Just wait there a while, Chloe. I'll have your tea ready as soon as possible."

"Sure."

While Goh carefully prepared some tea, Ash and Leah made Eevee's latte. Leah once again put some cute latte art on top. "Here you go, Mister Eevee!"

"Eevee's a she, actually."

"Oh, my apologies! I didn't notice her tail."

"It's fine! Now drink up, Eevee!" Chloe said to her foxy companion.

Eevee began to lick up some of her coffee, only to be startled when the Eevee on top of it vanished as soon as she did so. "Vuivuiiiii!" She cried out in a panic.

"Oh, Arceus. Did what happened with Grookey just happen again? Don't tell me it happened again." Goh grumbled, exasperated.

"I'm starting to think making latte art with the pokémon was a bad idea…" Leah thought aloud.

With the café continuing to become more and more active, Leah eventually added a bigger menu and a suggestion box for the costumers to suggest more foodstuffs they'd like to see. The fame of the Pokémon Café grew so large, eventually even wild pokémon came to visit it.

The boys continued to help whenever they had time, and Team Rocket continued to attempt to steal Pikachu (who always managed to evade capture). Things were going pretty well.

"Here are your waffles, Timburr!" Ash exclaimed while giving the aforementioned delicacy in a table seating a group of Timburr.

"Here's your tea, Lilligant!" Goh similarly said to a Lilligant sitting with a trio of Petilils.

"And here's your sandwiches, mister Leon, mister Raihan…" Meowth mumbled to a certain champion and his rival, before walking back to his companions. He seemed rather exhausted.

"See, I told you this place was great!" Leon said to Raihan.

"Yeah, it's too bad we spent FOUR HOURS trying to find it because you got lost, until I thought to just use a GPS. The shop is nearly closing!" Raihan complained. Indeed, the other guests were exiting as he said this.

"Hey, it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"

"Don't worry about it, mister Leon! If you hadn't told these boys about my coffee shop, it'd never have gotten as far as it has! You and your boyfriend can stay for as long as you want."

"Buh- I- He's not my…" Raihan looked askance at Leon, who was grinning a mischievous smile. "Oh, you bastard."

Meanwhile, the members of Team Rock… er, the…

The members of Team Rocket, who really aren't fooling anyone aside from the people in this story, conferred with one another about their plan.

"I know we were thinking of catching only Pikachu, but can we really let an opportunity like this pass us by?" James asked, pointing at Leon's Charizard and Raihan's Duraludon, merrily eating together. "Those are some pretty valuable pokémon, too!"

"The Galar Champion's signature pokémon and a powerful dragon-type pokémon, both capable of gigantamaxing…" Jessie contemplated. "If we capture them-"

"Da baws will be proud of us fer doin' such a good job!"

"Wobbu-wob!" Wobbuffet concurred.

"Thank goodness I brought this special, Team Rocket-brand net gun for just such an occasion!" Jessie exposited while she pulled out a small weapon that looked more like a kids' toy from her pocket. "Now to wait for the right moment…"

"I'm just saying I wish you wouldn't tell everyone you come across that I'm your boyfriend!" Raihan remarked to Leon.

"But isn't it true?" Leon questioned with the best confused puppy-dog eyes he could manage.

"That's not the point!"

"Whoa", Ash exclaimed as he looked at the two bickering boyfriends. "I'm getting this weird feeling of… Dejá Vu. I wonder why?" Goh coughed awkwardly in response.

"Anyway, what should we order next? I'm so hungry I could eat a Rapidash!"

"You just ate an entire pizza! What is wrong with you?" Raihan protested.

"Great, now I'm getting dejá vu as well", Goh commented.

At that moment, Pikachu and Grookey returned to the café, having finished their daily task of promoting it to anyone who would listen. "Pika… Pika?" Pikachu gawked at Leon and Raihan, surprised at their presence there.

"Oh, I was wondering where Ash and Goh's pokémon had run off to!" Leon stated.

"They were running around, being good little advertisers, weren't you, boys?" Ash cooed. "Come on over, I have some cookies with your names on them!"

"Pikapi!" "Groo!" Pikachu and Grookey ran excitedly toward Ash, running between where Leon's Charizard and Raihan's Duraludon were in the process…

…Thus putting them in the perfect position to be captured by Team Rocket.

"Now!" Shooting her net gun at exactly the right moment, Jessie managed to capture all four pokémon in one fell swoop.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried out.

"Grookey!"

"Who are you people, and what are you trying to do with our pokémon?!" Leon angrily questioned.

"If you ask us 'who are you people, and what are you trying to do with our pokémon'…" Jessie began.

"The answer we give is out of sympathy for the world!" James completed.

Then, the two as well as Meowth and Wobbuffet removed their disguises and started their motto.

"To protect the world from devastation!

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! Dat's right!"

"WOBBUFFET!"

"Team Rocket?!" Goh and Ash shouted in unison.

"That's right! and you let us slip right through all of your noses! That yellow rat of yours seemed to know that something was up, but he couldn't escape us in the end, could he?" Jessie stated, mockingly.

"What in the world…" Leah looked aghast at Team Rocket. "What kind of person pretends to be a barista just to steal pokémon?"

"Team Rocket does!" Ash said to her. "Don't worry, we can handle them!"

"We'll be taking these pokémon here, if you don't mind!" James declared.

"I do mind! I mind a lot! I need that Charizard for battling, and… stuff." Was Leon's reply.

"Battling and 'stuff'? That's what you came up with?" Raihan asked, bewildered.

"I never said I was good at making dramatic statements to evil villains, did I?"

"GRRRRRoookey!" Grookey yelled from under the net, furious at being at the mercy of Team Rocket for the third time. He tried biting through the net, to no avail.

"Dat's not goin' ta work!" Meowth stated. "Dat's a specially made, Team Rocket-brand net! Even solid steel can't cut it!"

"Pikachu, Iron Tail!" Ash ordered.

"Pika…chu!" Pikachu's tail hardened and gained a metallic sheen, and then Pikachu proceeded to strike at the net with all his strength. This, too, proved useless.

"You must be hard of hearing or sumthin', twoip!" Meowth mocked. "I just told ya that you can't cut through this net, even with solid steel!"

"Uh, just a question", Leon said, addressing Meowth. "This net. What would happen to it if something inside of it grew to such an immense size that it exceeded the net's tensile strength?"

"Well…" Meowth pondered the question for a second. "I s'pose in dat case, it would probably snap. But how would you make a pokémon grow that much, that… fast…"

Leon stared at Meowth, expressionless.

"…Oh." Team Rocket panicked as they realized what Leon was about to do. "Get to the balloon, now!" Jessie ordered. Suddenly, the ceiling of the Pokémon Café broke apart as a giant, Meowth-shaped balloon broke through it and released a few ropes for Team Rocket's use.

"My café's roof! You broke my beautiful roof!" Leah shrieked. "That's it! You're all fired!"

"You never paid us, anyway!" James replied. "Au revoir!"

Team Rocket grabbed onto the ropes and tried to take the pokémon with them, though they only succeeded in taking Pikachu and Grookey. The rest were too heavy (and they were kind of afraid of taking Leon's Charizard at this point).

"We really should have thought of how we would take those bigger pokémon before we did this", James remarked as he climbed onto the balloon along with the others.

"There was no time!"

"Well, at least Grookey is back with us, and we got Pikachu, so it wasn't a total loss." Meowth stated.

"Wobbuffet, wob!" Wobbuffet exclaimed happily, holding onto Grookey like it was his very own son.

Grookey glared at Wobbuffet with contempt. "GRRRRookey!" It yelled, and with a very angry expression, started bonking Wobbuffet repeatedly.

"Wob! Wob! Wob!" Wobbuffet repeated while wobbling from side to side as it was buffeted by Grookey's blows, over and over. (Wait a minute. Wobbling? Buffeted? Ohhhh! Now I get it.)

Meanwhile, on the ground, Leon called Charizard back to its pokéball. "If they want Charizard so badly, then let's give them a LOT of Charizard!" With that, Leon charged the pokéball with Dynamax energy and released Charizard once again, now in its gigantamax form.

"Now, Charizard! Use G-Max Wildfire!" Leon ordered.

"No, wait, mister Leon!" Goh stammered. "That's going to-"

"GO FOR IT, MISTER LEON!" Ash yelled, interrupting Goh. "You're the coolest!"

"Chaar-ri-zaard…" Leon's Charizard growled at it took aim at Team Rocket.

"Guys… don't look back, but I think we're going to…" James warned, fearful of what was about to occur.

More and more fire brewed inside Charizard's mouth, until it finally unleashed a barrage of flames shaped like a gigantic bird, hitting the would-be thieves' escape balloon with the fury of a hurricane.

Like clockwork, Team Rocket was thrown out of the balloon and into the sky. "Team Rocket's blasting off againnnnnn!"

"Oh, well", James said with a somewhat-optimistic voice, still flying through the air. "At least we still have the pokémon we wanted to steal with us, right?"

"Actually…" Meowth looked sheepishly at the others. "I think they jumped out right before we were about ta be hit with dat attack."

Jessie and James looked around. Grookey and Pikachu were nowhere to be seen.

All four slumped their shoulders as they became a twinkle in the sky. "This sucks…"

"Grookeyyyyyy!" Grookey screeched as it fell from a high altitude, holding onto Pikachu as hard as it could.

Pikachu looked at it with an exasperated expression, before extending its four paws outward to take the position of a skydiver, a trick he'd learned from a mischievous fellow electric rat in Unova.

"Groo?" The green monkey looked confused for a second, but it quickly followed Pikachu's lead.

"Pikachu!" "Grookey!" Its trainers, having run out of the café as quickly as they could, managed to catch both of them as they fell.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay, Grookey! I was so worried!" Goh exclaimed, hugging Grookey tightly.

"I knew you'd pull through, buddy!" Ash told Pikachu, and the two of them shared a fistbump.

After the initial excitement wore off, though, they remembered that all was not well. Goh and Ash looked back at the café.

"The café… the café is burning…" Goh stated, so devastated that he couldn't properly express it in his voice.

"We gotta do something! Did you bring any other pokémon with you, Goh?" Ash asked.

"Of course! Inteleon, I choose you!" Goh replied, removing Inteleon's pokéball from his pocket and throwing it as quickly as he could.

"Intel!" The large chameleon repeated its own name, awaiting orders from its trainer.

"Inteleon! You have to put out that fire!" Goh said, pointing at the café.

Inteleon complied and ran toward the burning restaurant, and the two boys followed suit.

Inside the café, Leah was panicking. "Oh my god, oh my god, this is horrible…"

"This is kind of my fault, isn't it?" Leon asked, looking at the growing fire guiltily.

"Don't say that, mister Leon! If anything, it's my fault that-" Leah tried to say.

"Yeah, it sure as heck is!" Raihan said while interrupting Leah. "That was the least 'Champion Time' thing you've ever done."

"Aren't you supposed to be supportive in these kinds of situations?"

"I can't hold back your tide of bad decisions, man."

"Speaking of tide!" Goh shouted. "Inteleon, do your thing!"

"Inteleon!" Inteleon aimed at the largest fires in the building and put them out with sniper precision.

Unfortunately, the boys' relief was short-lived. They had arrived too late to save most of the café. The fire hurt the building's structural integrity too much, and now it looked like a dilapidated, abandoned shack. Some of the equipment got burned, too.

"Um… at least the coffee machine is alright?" Ash said, trying to be positive.

Leah looked so distressed, Goh almost felt like hugging her. "All the food I bought… all the new things I bought for the café… it's all gone…"

"I could pay for it all, I mean, I'm sort of the one who burned everything with my gigantamax Charizard…" Leon offered.

"No, I couldn't make you do that, mister Leon. This all would never have happened if I hadn't blindly trusted those strangers and let them work here. You… you can go. I'll find a way to fix all of this.

"…Okay, Leah. If you're sure." Leon replied, walking out of the café. He didn't have to open the door or anything, since the door got burned down, too.

"This is probably not the best time to ask", Raihan said to Leon, walking out with him. "But where did you learn a term like 'tensile strength'?"

"From books. Where else?"

"You are so lying to me."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

As they left, Leah looked at her budget on her phone. "…We can't fix this."

"Wait, what?" Goh asked. "What do you mean?"

"I don't have the money to replace everything, much less repair the café. See?" She put the phone in front of them.

Indeed, from looking at the information on the screen, today's costumers managed to put them out of the red, but just barely. It's not nearly enough to buy more coffee beans, or honey, or marshmallow, or anything, really.

"I guess I was just too reckless with buying new things for the shop. Everyone kept suggesting new things and before I knew it, I was spending money when I should have saved instead. Now, look where we are."

"This – this can't be. There has to be something we can do!" Ash exclaimed with an alarmed voice.

"It's okay, guys! I… You know, I'm happy that we least managed to get this far", Leah stated, though she seemed very far from happy.

"Leah…" Goh whispered. "We still have that coffee machine, like Ash said. If we're just more careful this time-"

"No, no, don't worry about it. I've put myself in this mess and I'm the one who has to deal with it. Even if it means giving up on this place entirely." Leah said, waving them off. "Maybe I can sell some of the stuff that's left…"

"H-Hey… you were just now telling Leon that you'd fix everything! You can't give up that easily!" Ash protested.

"How can I NOT?!" Leah shouted, startling both of the boys. "I have NO IDEA how to run a coffee shop, or how to attract costumers, or, or… anything! This whole time, I was just relying on you both! There's no way I can make this work, and I was a fool for not seeing it sooner. Please, just… go."

Goh and Ash nodded and silently began to walk out, still very much bothered by the situation but understanding that this was something that probably shouldn't have involved them to begin with.

Goh couldn't help but sympathize with Leah, someone who tried so hard to make her dream a reality, even despite all the obstacles around her. He silently hoped things would get better for her.

And that would have been the end of it, if not for the fact that just as Goh was opening the door to leave, he happened to overhear Leah whispering something to herself very quietly. Something that made him decide he couldn't just walk away.

"It was a stupid dream, anyway."

Goh balled his hands into fists and turned back to face her. "No. Don't say that – never say that!"

"Goh…?" Ash muttered dumbfoundedly as Goh continued to adress Leah with a rather angry expression.

"Don't ever let anyone tell you your dream is stupid, especially not yourself! Okay, Leah?"

Leah seemed surprised and unsure of how to react, so Goh kept on speaking. "Now, I know a thing or two about chasing dreams… when it seems impossible, everyone and everything around you keeps telling you to stop, that you're fooling yourself. But that's why you gotta work hard to MAKE it possible! So wipe that frown off your face, roll up your sleeves and seize that future you've imagined with the palm of your hands!"

"I… But Goh, how could we possibly put everything back the way it was?" Leah asked.

"Don't worry. I have a plan!" Goh stated confidently. "I promise you, we'll have this place fixed up by tomorrow! So just go rest for now and let us do our thing, okay?"

Leah looked uncertain. "…Okay. But after this, you have to promise you won't get involved anymore! I need to learn to stand on my own two feet at some point."

"We promise." Goh replied. "After all – we only get involved until the problems get resolved, right?" He nudged Ash with his elbow as he said this. Ash grinned at him.

"Okay, Ash, so here's what we're gonna do…" Goh took Ash and started whispering his entire plan to him.

Leah tossed and turned in her bed all night, worrying about whatever the boys were planning.

The truth was, she didn't know if she wanted the café back the way it was. Sure, it was great to see all the happy costumers, but managing her own restaurant had proved… daunting. She didn't know if she was up for it, in the end.

I mean, she was so bad at it, she had to depend on two ten-year olds and some ruffians who turned out to be criminals. It was the kind of thing that made someone doubt herself.

But, given the time to reflect on it, she thought Goh had a point. She was giving up on her dream too easily. Still, though. She owes it to them to be better in the future. She was dreaming about this café for so long, but she hasn't really had the courage to face up to the reality of what it means.

The month is nearly over. Only four days until she has to see Ms. Shelby again. But at least, no matter what happens, they did manage to break even.

With the dawning of the sun, Leah gets up, makes some coffee for herself (with a smaller, less expensive coffee machine, naturally) and walks in the direction of the café.

When she gets there, she can't believe her eyes. At first, she thinks it must be some kind of mirage, but no. The café really is there, good as new. The only difference she can find is that above the door, the plaque now says "Pokémon Café – Grand Reopening".

It's like the events of the previous night never happened! How could this be?

She runs quickly into the café, and the sights within are even more astounding than the one outside. The café is now filled with pokémon – not just costumers, but many are dressed like servers or other members of staff.

She can see several different Pikachu running around, along with a Lucario, an Exeggutor, Granbull, Plusle and Minun, a Charmander… the list went on. But the amount of costumers still far exceeded the amount of servers. The café was hustling and bustling like never before.

Behind the counter, Ash and Goh were looking at the cash register with what looked like excitement. "That sure is a lot of money."

"Ash! Goh! The café is- How did this-" Leah tries to ask them.

"Oh, we just called in a little help from our friends!" Ash replied.

"We were a little short on staff after what happened, so I thought 'well, if the pokémon café is supposed to serve pokémon, how about having pokémon help us, too?' and we asked Pikachu to find as many of our previous costumers as possible and ask them to help." Goh explained further.

"And they all did?"

"Sure! You'd be surprised what pokémon will do for you if you just treat them well", Ash told her with a wink.

"But the café burned down. All the equipment I bought…"

"That's where I had to ask for a few favors from some of my Alolan friends", Ash said, pointing toward two odd-looking pokémon behind him.

"Greetings, zzt! My name is Rotomdex! I am pleased to make your acquaintance! Zzt!"

"Melmel!"

"These are my Rotomdex and my Melmetal! They helped replace some of the… metal thingies."

"The shaved ice machine, the popcorn machine, the soda maker, the blender, the shaker, etc." Goh added.

"Yeah, those things.

"Melmetal can create anything out of the metal inside its body! Zzt!" Rotomdex chimed in.

"Rotom just downloaded the schematics for everything from the internet, and then Melmetal reproduced them! Free of charge!"

"Okay", Leah said, still incredibly shocked, "But what about everything else? The building, the roof? And how did you get money to pay for more ingredients?"

"Those guys over there helped repair the building for us", Ash explained, pointing toward the group of Timburr that had visited the coffee shop the previous day. They were now sitting peacefully in a table all their own, seeming tired but very pleased with themselves.

"As for the ingredients, look over here", Goh motioned for Leah to look at what seemed to be a small plantation, which Grookey was staring at as though analyzing the quality of the crops. Leah was no horticulturist, but they looked like coffee plants, tea plants, tomatoes and other things she would use as ingredients.

"Little Grookey here is very good at growing plants really quickly, and he's been hard at work! Sure, it won't taste quite as good as those fancy coffee beans you used to buy… but the costumers don't seem to be complaining!" He told her, giving Grookey a congratulatory pat on the head.

"Like I used to tell some friends of mine – anything is possible when you have pokémon power!" Ash stated cheerfully.

Leah was beside herself with joy. "Ash, Goh… this is amazing. You've done something I really thought was impossible, and all because I needed your help. I can't overstate how much this means to me."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Come help us serve everyone and get acquainted with your new staff members!" Goh suggested.

"…Yeah! Let's go!" Leah raised her hands to the air and then rolled up her sleeves. She was not going to let this second chance go to waste.

"Hey, that's my line…" Goh complained light-heartedly.

"Oh, everyone says it at this point, don't be silly." Ash chided.

The next couple of days proceeded quite smoothly. If Leah thought the café had become popular overnight before, it was nothing compared to what was happening now. Maybe it was the appeal of having your coffee served by cute pokémon that brought people in.

Sometimes, when it got a little too busy, even for them, Ash and Goh's pokémon would chip in to help. Leah got a good laugh out of seeing Ash's Lucario try to keep Goh's Cinderace's attention from the Lucario that was working at the shop. Funny how even their pokémon seemed to be dating each other.

Grookey continued to grow all the plants with a lot of care and attention (and occasionally helped out by breaking ice with its stick), and now that Pikachu didn't really need to go out and promote the café, he was able to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't suddenly decide to sneakily munch on some of the ingredients. One particular incident involved the poor thing getting stuck inside the popcorn machine. Though he actually seemed to enjoy the experience, somehow…

Ash and Goh were currently busy taking the orders of a very hungry brunette they were apparently acquainted with, and her green-haired boyfriend.

"Mmmhmm! This café has everything! Coffee, tea, waffles, pancakes, popcorn! It's like a gourmet paradise!" The girl stated, biting into her waffles with utmost glee. "Don't you think so, Drew?"

"Er, definitely", the elegant boy replied. "But May, how are you planning on paying for all this stuff?"

"Wait!" May looked around, suddenly frightened. "This isn't an all-you-can-eat buffet?"

"Nope", Ash told her from behind the counter. "You eat it, you buy it!"

May's face grew five times paler. "Do – do you accept checks?" Ash, Goh and Leah laughed lightheartedly at the girl's situation.

After taking the check – which turned out to be a rather exorbitant amount – Leah heard the door open up, and a familiar old lady stepped on through.

"My, my. I had my doubts, but you've really turned this place around, haven't you, Leah? Why, it's almost unrecognizable!" Ms. Shelby commented with pride.

"Why, thank you, Ms. Shelby. It's all thanks to these amazing young men who've helped me every step of the way." Leah stated, putting her hands of Ash and Goh's shoulders for emphasis.

"Well, you kids must be pretty savvy to have helped Leah fix this café up! I tell you, when it was starting out, I kept insisting she should go out and distribute some flyers but she kept saying 'noooo, what if some costumers walk in while I'm no gone?' Made no sense at all." Ms. Shelby teased.

"That's what I told her!" Goh commented, trying to ignore Ash throwing his best 'anti-negativity' glare at him.

"Well, what's important is that the café is in good hands. Hopefully it will stay that way for years to come." Ms. Shelby mused.

"Won't you stay a while, see what new items we have on the menu now?" Leah suggested.

Ms. Shelby shook her head. "Why, that would be a conflict of interest, wouldn't it, dear? Have a nice day, now." She said to Leah, before waving goodbye and exiting, carelessly bumping into Goh on the way.

Goh gave her a mean look. "I know she's paying for this place, but she REALLY needs to watch where she's going."

"Don't mind her, she's a bit nearsighted", Leah explained through muffled laughter. "Anyway… boys. I think you know it's our last day together."

"Nooooo!" Ash shouted, crying exaggeratedly. Goh covered his face with his hand to hide his embarrassment. "So soon?"

"I did say I wanted to stop relying on you guys. It's been a blast, but I need to woman up and actually be a responsible coffee shop owner eventually. And besides, I don't want to get arrested for child labor", she joked.

"Tell that to Professor Cerise!" Goh joked back (is he wrong, though?)

"But, on that note, I have a few parting gifts for you. First is this", Leah pulls out a few pokédollar bills and hands them to the boys. "Your first salary payment. Since you have been working here for a month now."

"W-Whoa! This is… one hundred bucks?! I could buy so many nice-smelling round thingies with this!"

Inwardly, Goh is thinking that it's just one-eighth of his allowance, but he smiles anyway. "Thanks, Leah! We appreciate it."

"Not as much as you'll appreciate this, though!" Upon saying that, Leah showed them a small gift box and started unwrapping it.

Underneath was a small, portable coffee maker. "It's not as versatile as my dual-boiler machine, naturally", Leah bragged. "But if you just want a good cup of coffee to warm you up, this thing comes in really handy."

"Our very own coffee maker!" Ash cheered, taking the small machine into his hands. "We'll treasure it forever!"

Leah smiled at them. "The honest truth is, when the café burned down, I was kind of… relieved. I was really scared for so long, thinking that I was just no good at this, that it would all blow up in my face. A part of me was glad to have it out of my hands."

She grabbed Ash and Goh's hands and continued to speak. "But that was wrong of me. Because this coffee shop was my dream since I was little. If I gave up on it so easily, I would have let down that little girl whose only desire was to make people and pokémon happy with her coffee. You didn't just bring back the café, boys. You brought back my dream. And no matter what happens, you'll always be welcome here. With a 25% discount on all the offerings! No, 30%!"

She finished her speech by giving Ash and Goh a big, tearful hug. "We won't forget our experiences here either, Leah", Goh stated. "It was a great time, and we learned a lot. And it was a neat mental exercise to think up ways that a pokémon might be useful to help restore the café!"

"Oh, you're such a nerd, dear", Ash teased him.

"And that's why you love me", Goh teased right back. "But you know, even though you've said you don't want to rely us, if anything crazy ever happens again, just give us a call, yeah?"

"Will do! Goodbye, Ash! Goodbye, Goh! Make sure to stop by again sometime!" Leah replied, smiling and seeming happier than Goh or Ash had ever seen her before.

It was nice to have allies, sure. But it was an even greater feeling to have friends. And that's what Ash and Goh had become to her.

Goh and Ash left the café, eager to tell the Professor and Chloe about everything (at least, the parts they hadn't talked their ears off about already).

Humans and pokémon share many things. They both have a willingness to help those in need, both protect those they care about, and most importantly – they both enjoy the sensation of having good coffee in the morning! That is but one of the things this experience taught Ash and Goh… as the journey continues!

A.N. I barely managed to get this fic written in time.

It's criminal that there hasn't been any Pokémon Café Mix tie-in episode, so I decided to make my own! With plenty of cameos and fanservicey bits, naturally.

A few observations about the story: I made Team Rocket reference both their japanese and english catchphrases during their confrontation. I just thought it seemed fitting, and I like their "if you ask us this or that" catchphrase. Also, when Grookey was falling, I considered having it save itself by strapping on a tiny parachute like it does in the current ending, but I thought it was too parodical for a canon-compliant fic.

I set the Pokémon Café in Galar for this story, hence Leon visiting it and being able to use gigantamax. It's technically a Gen 8 game, after all. Also, I know that Leah is only a server in the game, but I made her the owner of the café since she's the flagship character of the game. I quite enjoyed writing her, though I wish I was able to show more of her insecurity as the story went on. Since Ash and Goh are the focal characters, that wasn't really feasible.

I sort of wrote her as someone who is very excitable and obsessed with her dream, but so terrified of failing she ends up unable to progress or do anything to make that dream a reality, even though she puts up a brave face and pretends like there's nothing wrong. Which is about 80% more personality than she has in-game, since apparently I am pathologically unable to write characters who aren't falling apart mentally /lh

I had so many ideas for this, and I tried to include them all. There's still one other that didn't really fit in, so I put it in an omake bonus chapter. Anyhoo, congratulations to Pokémon Café ReMix for their own grand reopening!