I don't like interrupting the story, but as of this chapter, we will be diverging from canon at JN71 ("Let's Go! Project Mew!"). No events from further episodes will be considered to have happened in the universe of the story. Thank you for understanding.

"WHAAAAT?! THAT ALL HAPPENED?!"

Chloe nodded to Mika's question before taking a sip of the tea from her thermos. It was lunchtime at school again, and the Monday after Chloe and Ash visited the Vermilion Museum.

"So it was really a real life date?!" pestered Mika, hungry for any details.

Chloe kept her eyes closed so that she wouldn't roll them at her friend. "No, it wasn't. We just hung out, you know? Stop making it something it's not."

Mika was busy ignoring her, grinding her teeth. "We were so busy on Saturday…! All because of that arcade opening, Mom had me helping out at the bakery…" she sighed. "I wish I could have seen you. I bet he was a real sweetheart. It sounds like he tried really hard."

"He tried too hard," Chloe replied. "Goh put him up to so much…" Her mind went to the hushed conversation she had with Goh this very morning, the first time she'd seen him since she left the lab the previous Friday.

"You really put him up to a lot, huh?" she said, frowning.

"I was trying to make your first date a magical and romantic experience," Goh said.

"It wasn't a-"

"Yeah, I know, I know. Trust me, I tried to explain the concept to Ash but it didn't seem like he got it."

Chloe pushed aside the twist in her stomach she felt. "Well, that's right. I hardly know Ash. Even if I have a stupid crush on him, it'd be better to learn more about him first. I'm taking things one step at a time."

Goh smirked. "Oh, so like with Eevee, then?"

That embarrassed her. "Y-Yeah, so what? I like to take things slowly before I make a decision. It's always better to work from more information than less."

Ash poked his head around the corner. "What'd you guys say about Eevee?" he asked, though in truth it was almost impossible to understand what he said since his mouth was still filled with breakfast.

Chlloe sighed. "Point being, it's not a date, he's not my boyfriend, so everyone just needs to relax."

"Fine, fine…" Mika said, slinking into her chair at the desk in front of Chloe's in the classroom where the two of them were eating lunch. "Why'd it have to be you, Little Miss No Fun who gets a crush on someone anyway…"

Chloe groaned. "So anyway, what are you doing for next week, Mika?"

She sat up and blinked her blue eyes. "Next week?" she asked. "What's special about next week?"

Chloe rolled her eyes - openly, this time. "Next week is spring break. We won't be in school, so I guess you'll just be helping your Mom out, won't you?"

A shrug and a sigh came from Chloe's friend. "Yeah, probably… She's such a workaholic… I wish we could take a break, too, sometimes…" She reached behind her and grabbed a melon bread from her own lunch box and took a bite out of it. "So what about you?" she asked with her mouth full, reminding Chloe of how Ash would talk. "Do you have some big plans or something?"

Chloe sat up, smirking. "My Dad's taking us on a little vacation. We're going to hit the beach on Cinnabar Island and I fully plan on enjoying the sun and sea."

It was a relaxing week away from the Lab that they had planned for this spring break. The lab would remain open for Ash and Goh to come and go if they wanted, though they would be asked to go home for the week. Chrysa and Ren would come to feed the Pokémon, but otherwise the lab would be completely closed for an entire week while Professor Cerise and his family enjoyed bonding time together in the sun. 'I can already hear the waves crashing against the beach…' she thought.

"Ooh, you're so lucky," pouted Mika. "I guess that's just the perk of being the Professor's daughter, that you get to take such cool little vacations." She took another bite of her bread. "So it's just you and your parents and your little brother, right? You're not taking Alf or Goh or anybody?"

"N-No," Chloe said, stammering at even the thought. "And his name is Ash."

Mika shrugged. "Alf, Ash, whatever. The point is, you're not inviting them along?"

"Why would I do that? It's a family trip."

"You were the one just saying that you wanted to get to know him better, right?" Mika said, pointing at Chloe with her half-eaten melon bread. "What would be a better way to get to know him than a little vacation trip? You could even bring along Goh for cover so your parents don't think you're trying to spend time with this guy."

At that thought, Chloe hung her head. "Parker spent all day yesterday teasing me for going out to meet him on Saturday. If I had to spend a week with him around, it'd be just awful."

Mika shrugged. "Well, why not go with him to his house?"

The thought struck Chloe, making her look up at her friend, green eyes going wide. It was not something she could even think to suggest, right? 'There's no way I can ask them to go there with him for a week, right…? Not after everything Parker's said…' Even with her rational mind making moves to block, she couldn't deny that the thought found some purchase in her heart.

"Where does this guy live, anyway?" Mika asked, finally jamming the last piece of melon bread into her mouth."

"He's from Pallet Town."

Mika began to spit up the bread but shoved her hand in front of her mouth to stop the soggy wad from landing on Chloe's desk before swallowing it. "PALLET TOWN!? I mean, I know Professor Oak lives out there, but… Pallet Town? Really? There's absolutely nothing to do out there. It's a podunk backwater that's only on the map because of Professor Oak!"

Unfortunately, Chloe had to agree. "I went to Pallet Town once with Goh when we were six, and we were only there for Professor Oak's camp. There was nothing to do in Pallet Town besides that…"

Mika shrank back down in her seat. "Yeah, I guess it was a dumb idea to go with him to his house, huh…?"

Despite Mika now retreating from the idea, the more Chloe considered it, the more appealing it was becoming. 'The thing is…' Chloe thought to herself, 'I still kind of want to go there…' Other than that one trip years ago, she hadn't spent much time in the countryside of the mostly urban Kanto region. 'Ash already said he didn't have school uniforms out in Pallet Town… I wonder how much a place like that really influenced who he is…'

"Chloe, what are you thinking…?" Mika asked, causing Chloe to snap back out of her thoughts and look back at her friend scrutinizing her. "You were actually considering it, weren't you?" she asked.

Chloe said nothing but took a drink from her thermos, thereby confirming Mika's suspicions.

"Chloe, you are so brave to do that…" Mika said. "I couldn't imagine going anywhere without air conditioning or the internet."

Chloe glared back. "You're exaggerating."

"Am I?" she asked. "You know there's nothing in Pallet Town other than Professor Oak. Everyone in Kanto knows that! If you told me I could spend a week at the beach or spend a week in the wilderness… Well, I'm just saying it's not much of a choice."

"Your opinion is noted, but I'm still going to Cinnabar with my family, so it really doesn't matter," Chloe said, shrugging. 'Though… it would be really cool to head out there and see what it's like.'

Mika looked at Chloe, like she could see the thoughts running through her friend's head, but before she could respond, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. She quickly gathered her belongings and left the desk to return to her own across the room. Chloe let out a sigh of relief, happy to be off the grill Mika was going to continue to heat under her.

And yet, despite her own dismissal of the thought, it stayed in the back of her head, gnawing at her concentration. 'I know it's probably not the best idea, going out to Pallet Town. Where would I even stay? Some hotel or something in the area? His house? What is there to gain from being there? It's already super sketchy that I'd want to go, but at the same time… he thinks so differently than I do most of the time. It's like a way of seeing things I've never considered before, so maybe going out there would give me a fresh perspective.'

"Chloe?" her mother asked. "Are you feeling alright? You've hardly touched your dinner?"

Chloe looked up, seeing her mother, father, and little brother all looking at her. She was sitting at the dinner table with her family that very evening after coming home from school and the lab. Their plates were mostly empty while hers was still nearly full of her mother's special yakisoba stir fry.

"I'm alright," she said, shrugging. "I guess I'm just thinking about stuff…"

"Such as?" Professor Cerise asked, turning his own attention to her.

Now with two parents staring down at her, she began to shrink into her seat. Across from her, Parker grinned, happy to not be the one being singled out. 'Lucky…' she thought.

When she didn't answer immediately, Parker took the opportunity to speak up. "Oh, I bet I know what it is," he teased.

Chloe glared up at him from her declined position. Parker met her intense gaze with a smirk.

"This isn't about Ash, is it?" her mother asked, making Chloe slink even further down.

Professor Cerise put a hand on the back of his daughter's chair. "Sit up, Chloe, and tell us what you were thinking about."

Sighing because she knew Parker would run with this, she sat up in her chair. "Well… I was thinking about the break we have coming up. What if… I didn't go to Cinnabar Island with you guys…?"

Her parents glanced at each other. "Well, where would you want to go then, Chloe?" her father asked.

She looked over to where Yamper and Eevee were licking their bowls clean. "...Well, I thought… you know…"

At that moment, Eevee looked up at her with her dark eyes, brightly reflecting the light in her eyes. '...yeah, you're right.' she thought. 'There's no reason to be afraid, right?'

She took a breath and focused on her thoughts.

"Well… last year when we went, I didn't have Eevee… I wasn't a Pokémon Trainer. And since then, I haven't exactly been the most active at training Eevee. And so… I just thought that instead of going to the beach this year, maybe it would be a good idea to do more… Pokémon Trainer things. Like spending time in the wilderness and exploring and training and things."

It wasn't entirely a lie; going out to Pallet Town would be a good opportunity for her to experience being a Pokémon Trainer first-hand in a somewhat controlled and safe environment, especially if Ash was there with her using his wealth of experience. 'It's not all about learning about him. I can learn about myself, too.

Her father nodded. "I see… that could be very good for you. You and Eevee are still making a lot of important decisions, and getting a wider view of the world might help you make them."

"I agree," her mother said, smiling. "Where were you thinking of going?"

Chloe froze, coughing. "Well, I… I thought about going to Pallet Town, actually."

A moment of silence fell over the table, broken by Parker's laughter. "You wanna go to Pallet Town just because Ash lives there!"

Chloe slapped her hands on the table, standing up. "That is NOT true! This is about experiencing different things in the world!" As she glared at her little brother, she knew the stinging redness in her cheeks betrayed her thoughts.

On the ground next to Yamper, Eevee slapped her paws against the front of her food bowl, bouncing the bowl off the ground and smacked herself in the face with it. She fell over, either falling into or feigning unconsciousness.

"Now, now, Parker, if Chloe thinks this is good for her, I think we should trust her judgement," her father said before turning to her. "Pallet Town is pretty different from what you'll see around here. I'm sure Ash or Professor Oak would be happy to show you around. Maybe you could even stay with the Ketchums while you're there, as a sort of base of operations?"

"Dad, you're just giving her what she wants!"

"Now, Parker," their mother said, "all children leave home someday. This is just Chloe taking an opportunity to explore things she'd like to do. I think if Ash is helping her feel like she can try new things, maybe spending more time with him isn't such a bad idea?"

Chloe put her head down on the table. "Mom, please don't talk like that."

Eevee, who had just gotten up from the floor, began pressing her face into it.

"Why don't you ask Ash if he'd be okay with it tomorrow, and if it's alright with him and his mother, then I don't see why it would be a bad thing!" Professor Cerise smiled at his daughter. "Trying out different things is the only way to find what you like and what you don't like, so if this leads you down a path to discover more about yourself, then I'd be happy to hear all about it once we come back from Cinnabar Island."

She sat up, looking at her parents. "You're… actually okay if I go to Pallet Town instead of spending the week with you guys? Really?"

Her mother laughed. "You would be the child who asks if you really should be given permission, wouldn't you?"

"Hey!" Parker interjected, incredulously. "What's that mean, Mom?"

"She's saying you're not responsible like I am," Chloe teased back, taking control of the conversation. "Maybe if you were more diligent with your chores, you'd get trusted just like I do."

"Aww, man… C'mon!"

As Parker continued to complain, Chloe took a bite of the yakisoba. 'Well, I guess I get to have a talk with Ash about this tomorrow... ' She swallowed her nervousness. Then she paused and took her phone out of her pocket. 'Wait, I could just text him now…?' She felt foolish, almost forgetting that they had already swapped phone numbers. '...but he hates texting for stuff like this, and I don't want him to think it's super important that he needs to run out at night. I'll just send him a short message that says I want to talk to him before I go to school.'

She began typing a message on the phone, directed to Ash:

Hey! Is it cool if we talk before I leave for school tomorrow?

She looked over the message. It was a little terse for her tastes; if she over thought it, she might think she was mad at Ash. 'Like Ash overthinks anything,' her mind sardonically quipped, but then she remembered how earnest he looked, trying to choose the right words when asking her a question, and she felt her heart melt at how sweet and thoughtful he could be.

'He won't read into it,' she decided, sending the message as Parker left the table and turned on the TV behind them. 'He probably won't even read it.'

As she sat her phone down and began to zone out watching TV, the message indicated with a tiny white checkmark that it had been read.

The next morning, Chloe steeled herself as she stepped into the lab with Yamper and Eevee bounding around her feet. Figuring the best way to find Ash was to go to where the food was kept, she walked into the kitchen. Ash and Goh were there, greedily chowing down in preparation for the coming day.

"Hey guys!"

"Hey, Chloe!" they replied in various muffled tones, their mouths full still. She tried not to let it get to her. She proceeded to where the Pokémon food was kept and put out bowls for Eevee and Yamper.

As she did, Ash spoke up. "Oh, uh, I got your message. What's up?"

Chloe nearly jumped, not really even really expecting that he'd have read the message. She looked at him, his inquisitive brown eyes following her as she moved towards the table. 'Since I have his attention…' "I wanted to ask what your plans were for the break next week," she asked.

"Oh, I'll be taking my Pokémon back t' Pallet Town," he said. "It'll be nice to let them see everyone I have at Professor Oak's for a bit, too!"

Goh sat up, pointing to himself. "I'll still be in the city. I can't exactly take every Pokémon I have with me since I have so many, but I'll pop in a few times next week to help Chrysa and Ren take care of things here."

"It's good that you'll be here to hold down the fort," Chloe said, with Ash quickly agreeing.

"I'll miss seein' all the Pokémon together, but it's only a week, right?"

Chloe turned to Ash, smiling. "Actually, I was wondering, Ash. Would it be okay if I came to Pallet Town with you on this break?"

Goh nearly choked on his breakfast. "Say what?"

Ash looked at her, blinking for a few moments as the gears in his brain turned. "You wanna come to Pallet Town…?" he asked, the look on his face still blank.

"Y-Yeah," she said. "I mean, I only got Eevee recently, so maybe checking out a place a bit closer to nature would be good to learn more about her, right?"

Eevee looked up from her food bowl, face messy. "Eievui?"

"I don't really know a lot about being a Pokémon Trainer, but I want to learn." She smiled at him, remembering that conversation that happened what felt like a month and last week at the same time. "I don't want to be 'taught' by anyone, either. I want to learn more for my own sake, in my own way, what being a Pokémon Trainer means to me."

Ash relaxed at her answer. "Well… I mean… it'd be really cool if you came with me," he said, scratching his cheek shyly. "There's so much to do and see in Pallet Town, and it'll be fun to see how you take it all! It's way different from the city, for sure!"

Chloe smiled. "Thanks… I think getting out of the city would be cool, too. Oh, but shouldn't you ask your Mom, first?"

Ash gasped. "Oh, right! One sec!"

Goh raised an eyebrow. "One sec…?"

Ash took out his phone and tapped the screen a few times before holding it to his ear. There was a tense silence for a few moments until sounds began to come from the phone. "Hey, Mom! … Oh, I'm great! Hey, you know how I'm comin' home this weekend while th' Professor's gone? One of my friends wants to visit Pallet Town while I'm there! … No, not Goh. Her name's Chloe! Oh, right you did meet her that time, huh?"

Goh leaned back. "This is an incredibly bold move, Miss Cerise," he said quietly.

"Oh, quiet," she quipped back. "I've never really been out of the city for a long time. Even when we went to Oak's Camp, we were only there for a day. I wondered what kind of place Pallet Town is and how it made Ash who he is. And besides, I'm not wrong about expanding my own horizons."

"That's a lot of justification for just wanting to go to his house…"

"I said be quiet."

Ash's conversation with his mother continued. "So she can come? She can?! Awesome! Thanks, Mom! I'll tell her right now!" Ash looked up and grinned at her, flashing her a thumbs up. Chloe smiled back, but then Ash's expression changed into a frown. "… No, she can't hear me. Why?" Whatever Mrs. Ketchum said next made Ash's cheeks burn. "Mom, please, not now. … I'm handling it, I promise. … Mom, don't worry, I do that!"

Chloe and Goh chuckled quietly at Ash's Mom inevitably asking him embarrassing questions. Chloe took her phone out and checked the time. "Ah, I gotta run or I'll be late for school. Picking up her bag, she turned on her heel before taking Eevee's Poké Ball from her pocket and recalling the Normal-Type inside.

"See you later, Chloe," Goh said, giving her a friendly wave as Ash turned his back, still talking to his mother on the phone.

"See you, Goh. Just tell Ash we'll get everything worked out later for when we leave."

"So I'm going," she told Mika that day.

"Going? Going where?"

Brimming with confidence, she pointed at her chest with her thumb. "I am going to spend my break in Pallet Town."

Mika erupted into giggles and questions, each more embarrassing than the last.

The rest of the week felt like a blur to Chloe; her teachers were just as eager for the break as she was. When she arrived back at the lab on Friday afternoon, she found Ash and Goh having just returned from a trip to Sinnoh for Goh's first mission as part of Project Mew.

"You two look exhausted."

Both Ash and Goh were face-down on the kitchen table.

"We are exhausted," Goh replied, the words muffled by the table. Pikachu and Grookey didn't look much better.

"It was fun to help out that Ninetales but it wasn't fun bein' in that blizzard…"

"Pikachu…"

"Groo kee…"

Chloe stepped closer. "Well, it's good that you both have a week off now, right? You can both take it easy here and at home!"

Ash perked up. "Oh, right! We've gotta go catch th' bus, huh?"

Goh kept his face against the table. "You two have a good week. My parents are supposed to come by and pick me up since they're taking a vacation this week, too."

"You have a good time, too, Goh," Chloe said. "Hopefully you'll have a good story to share."

He finally sat up. "And you better learn more about what being a Pokémon Trainer means to you."

She nodded. "I'll be bringing Eevee with me, so we'll have plenty of time to explore what it means to us!"

Ash nodded and pumped his fist. "This is gonna be a really fun week! I'm gonna get my stuff and I'll be right back!" With that, he picked up Pikachu and put the mouse on his shoulder as he ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Chloe shrugged. "Wow, he got energy again all of a sudden."

"You get used to it," Goh said, chuckling.

Taking the moment, she let Eevee out of her ball, and the small Normal-Type shook herself loose from being inside all day. Chloe picked Eevee up, and held her in her arms. "My stuff is in the lab, so I guess I'll get it."

"You packed light, right?" Goh asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, I know it's not the same as the city. Just some changes of clothes and stuff. You wouldn't expect me to be in my school uniform all week, right?"

"I guess not."

She gave Goh a small wave, and he gave one back. She turned to the door and stepped through the hall into the lab's main building, where Chrysa and Ren had already left for the day. 'Dad, too,' she thought, picking up her suitcase.

Lifting it up, her suitcase had a bit more heft to it than she recalled. Curious, she sat it back down and opened it up.

She was greeted with a lick to the face.

"Yamp! Yamper! Yamp!"

"What?! Yamper?" Chloe lifted him up. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to go home with Dad!"

"Yamper! Yamper!" he barked, cheerfully wagging his tail at her with that wide, grinning expression.

"Oh, I let him in," said Ash, entering the laboratory. Pikachu now looked much more awake, and he carried his backpack with him as well as a wide grin. "Yamper said he wanted to come with you."

She blinked. "Yamper said that?" 'And you understood it?'

He shrugged, laughing. "Well, maybe not that exactly, but he did want to come with you."

She looked at the Pokémon in her hands for a moment, blinking. "Well… okay. But you need to be on your best behavior, okay, Yamper?"

"Yamper!" And he sprang forward and began licking her face again.

Chloe sat looking out the bus window. Her bag was stowed under her seat, and Eevee and Yamper were sitting side by side in her lap.

On her shoulder, lightly drooling, was Ash's head.

So she kept looking out the window, wondering why he fell asleep almost instantly after stepping onto the bus. She could see the looks from other travelers who were riding the bus towards the western parts of the Kanto Region, and she tried her hardest to ignore the warm feeling in her cheeks, like needles pricking her skin.

'This is stupid… I wonder if Goh ever has to put up with this… he'd would probably just shove him off…' But she looked at him, sleeping sweetly with his hair in it's wild configuration, and she couldn't be mad.

Pikachu was also asleep, himself in Ash's lap, curled up in his overturned hat with his tail sticking out. Chloe sighed and looked back out the window.

"Maybe I should be asleep, too," she said quietly, though only Yamper and Eevee would reasonably be able to hear.

The cityscape quickly faded into the farmlands around Vermilion, bringing to mind her trip with Ash and Goh to see Mr. Laxton and how different his house was from her home in the city. 'It was a lot bigger, for starters… I wonder if Ash's house will be bigger?'

Thinking further, she wondered how often buses drove out to Pallet Town. 'It can't be much, right? Professor Oak and Ash's Mom had to drive when they showed up when the lab opened…' Looking out again over the bus, there weren't many travelers on it, either. At least two looked like trainers, and there were a few elderly folks sitting closer to the front. Other than that, it was empty.

'There's even way less people out here than at home…'

Chloe took her phone from her pocket and looked at the time. They were still a bit away from Pallet Town, but she saw the signal bars steadily dropping. 'This might be less reliable out here, too…' she thought. A place in Kanto where she couldn't use her phone? It was a little scary to think about.

Her shuddering caused Ash to open his eyes. He sat up and yawned, still holding Pikachu in his lap. He looked at Chloe and blinked a few times before he realized how he fell asleep. "O-Oh, sorry," he said, looking away. "Guess I was more tired than I thought."

She shrugged, looking out the window so that he couldn't see her blush. "It's no big deal. It happens, I guess."

Pikachu was being roused now, yawning and stretching as he began to clamor up Ash to sit on his head. Eevee watched this and decided that she would do it, too, and climbed up Chloe's face to sit on her head, wagging her tail happily.

"Sorry if you were bored," he said, shrugging. "I didn't mean t' leave you alone like that."

"It's alright," she said. "I was just thinking about stuff."

"Like what?"

She shrugged. "About how different Vermilion and Pallet Town are," she said. Thinking for a moment, she looked over at him. "You've lived in Vermilion for a while and you're from Pallet Town. What do you think the biggest differences between the two are?"

Ash frowned. "The biggest differences between them?" He slouched back in his seat for a moment, thinking over the question.

"Yeah. Is it the lack of tall buildings? Or maybe the amount of people or wild Pokémon?"

Ash shook his head. "I think… the biggest difference between the two is… the pace, I guess."

"The pace? What do you mean?" Chloe asked.

"Vermilion's a huge place and there's always something happening there," he said. "They're always shooting movies or holding contests or all sorts of other stuff! It's pretty cool that there's something new there every day. But at the same time, everyone's gotta rush around to make sure they can see all that stuff." He reached up and took Pikachu off of his head, petting the Pokémon in his lap. "It's not like that in Pallet Town. Nobody's really in a rush to do much of anything. There's not as much to see, so I guess it's not as exciting, but I still like it, for different reasons than the ones I like Vermilion for. It's much quieter, and you get to know everyone better. Everyone's close."

'It sounds pretty intimate…' Chloe thinks about this description, frowning herself.

Ash looks over at her and chuckles. "Are you worried that a city girl like you won't fit in the small town?"

"I mean," Chloe said, shrugging, "I guess I might get a little culture shock, but I guess I'm more worried about sticking out like a sore thumb."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," he said, waving off her concern. "Everyone in Pallet Town is super nice, and I'm sure you'll get to know them really well even if you're just here for a week!"

She gave him a somewhat skeptical smile that barely lifted the corners of her mouth. "Thanks… Does that mean you worried about fitting in at the lab?"

He shook his head. "Nah. I've been so many places where I've been weird and easy t' pick out, I'm kinda used to not fitting in."

"So it's not that you were concerned about fitting in," Chloe said, "but more that you weren't concerned with it."

He shrugged. "That sounds about right. I've always been a part of a bigger group, like the friends I used to travel with, or even the class at the Pokémon School. I guess I like being with people and Pokémon more than fitting into a place."

Chloe giggled somewhat darkly. "Well, if there's a place you fit in perfectly, it's got to be the Cerise Lab. You and Goh and Dad are all so interested in Pokémon, and you're always excited to go out and learn the next newest thing out there…" She sighed, her grip on Yamper tightening to the point that even the puppy looked up at her.

It wasn't lost on Ash, either. "Hey, you belong there, too, y'know?" he said. "It's like Goh told me, everyone relates to Pokémon differently. And the way you take your time and consider what's best for Eevee is just your way of relating to them."

His assurances helped her relax. "You really think so?" she asked, looking over at him.

"No doubt about it," he said. "You being there helps the lab be the kinda place it is! It's like when you're cooking, you add a little bit of an ingredient that maybe you don't think would fit at first and the difference makes the whole thing even tastier!"

Chloe giggled. "Wow, Ash, I didn't know you knew so much about cooking!"

Ash laughed, too, scratching his cheek with a finger. "Yeah, well, a friend of mine I traveled with was really good at cooking, and I asked him why he was adding salt to some sweets one time. I just learn a lot from everyone I get t' know, you know?"

She nodded. "I.. hope I can learn a lot this week, too. Even if we don't find the exact path we want to follow, getting some perspective would be really nice, too." She smiled warmly at him. "Thank you, Ash."

Before Ash could respond, the bus driver hit a button activating the inner-com on the bus. "Next stop, Pallet Town. Next stop, Pallet Town!"

"Oh, we're here!" Chloe said. "C'mon, let's get our stuff and get off the bus!"

Ash stood, scrambling for his backpack while Chloe took her's, and the two of them rushed off the bus and into the cool evening air in the town of Pallet.