The sun was shining high in the sky when Chloe and Ash returned to his home in Pallet Town. "Hey, Mom!" he called out, standing at the front door. "We're back!"

When silence was the only answer, Chloe spoke up. "Is she in the backyard?" There was a pause before she asked the prerequisite question. "Do you guys have a backyard?"

Ash blinked like he was just realizing something. "Oh, I bet she's in the garden."

Chloe frowned at him, still holding Eevee after the events at Oak's Lab. The scowl she wore on her face was something that was becoming easier the more she dwelled on the seed of sadness that had been planted in the pit of her stomach since she had arrived in Pallet Town. "Well, let's go find her, then," she said.

Ash remained his guileless self. "Yeah, let's go see!" He opened the door wide and began walking through the house.

Chloe responded by shrugging and walking around the outside.

When she arrived, she found Ash's mother tending a modest garden. There weren't so many plants that would require a lot of work to maintain, she noticed. She recognized the tomato plant instantly, the green, unripened fruits hanging from the vines as they climbed the metal tomato cage around them. There were also smaller plants, looking like they would grow peppers from what Chloe could tell. There were a few others, but they looked too small for her to identify what, exactly, was growing.

Ash's mother wore a sun hat and a light jacket to keep the sun off of her while she worked. She looked up to see Chloe looking at her and smiled, giving the girl a small wave. Mr. Mime was watering some plants nearby, and Yamper was lying in the dirt near the garden, dozing peacefully. It was at this time that Ash finally came through the house and opened the door. "Hey, Mom, I-" he paused, having seen that Chloe had already made it out here. "Heh, uh, yeah you can do that, too."

"Pikapi…" Pikachu sighed, shrugging from his partner's shoulders. He looked to Ash's mother and Chloe with an apologetic look.

"You've come back for lunch already?" his mother asked him.

Ash returned a bashful smile, holding up the Z-Ring on his wrist. "Well… yeah. Using a Z-Move takes a lot of energy, y'know?" he said shyly.

His mother shrugged. "I guess it can't be helped. I did make some sandwiches and put them in the fridge for you, but I might have to make something even bigger for you at this rate."

"Sorry," he said, smiling widely. "Oh, but thanks, Mom!" he said, turning on his heel to go get something to eat.

"You can get yourself something to eat, too," Ash's mom said, turning to Chloe.

The girl shook her head. "I'm not like Ash. I actually have to wait until I digest food before eating more."

The woman laughed and returned to tending a nearby tomato plant with a pair of shears. "Ash has always had a huge appetite, even as a little boy. I guess it's where he gets all his energy from."

Holding Eevee to her chest, Chloe crouched down near the tomato plant, watching Ash's mother examine the branches. "So you're pruning it to improve the yield, right?"

"Do you know a lot about gardening?" Ash's mother asked after stifling a giggle.

"I know enough," she responded. "I help out with the garden at school a lot, so I know a bit about keeping plants healthy."

Ash's mother smiled at her. "Would you mind giving me a hand, then? I have some carrot seeds I'd like to plant in that area just over there."

Chloe looked over at the part of the yard she was gesturing towards. It wasn't a large area, but given how small carrots were and how they grew, there was ample room for a fairly healthy amount of plants. She sat Eevee down, and the Pokémon began sniffing at the dirt. "Sure, I'll give you a hand."

Chloe walked over to the section of the garden Ash's mother had indicated to her and took the shovel out of the bucket that was set aside. She crouched down as Eevee scampered over towards her, curious as to what they were doing now. Chloe looked at the packet of carrot seeds for a moment, reading how many were in there and the recommended depth of which they should be buried. "One centimeter deep and two and a half centimeters apart…" she read to herself. Taking the small shovel, she began digging the small, precisely spaced holes in the dirt.

The sound of Chloe's voice and the digging finally roused the lazy Yamper from his sleep, and he toddled over to where the action was. Eevee watched Chloe closely with her large brown eyes before moving to the opposite side and digging into the dirt with her paws in the same way that Chloe dug through the dirt with the shovel, leaving a succession of shallow spots for the carrots to be planted. Yamper yawned and continued to brush up against Chloe's legs, hungry for attention instead of food for a change.

"You're quite methodical," came the voice of Ash's mother.

Chloe looked up from her work at the woman, who seemed to be watching her with some interest. She shrugged. "Well… I'm used to routines and following instructions," she said, using a free hand to scratch Yamper's head.. "That's a lot of what school is. Following instructions and doing what you're told."

"Still going to school even at your age," Ash's mother said somewhat wistfully. "You're not like the other friends Ash has brought home."

Chloe immediately felt the conflict in her chest. On one hand, hearing that Ash's other friends were known to his mother was yet another blow in a series of embarrassing miscalculations she'd made regarding this week. On the other hand, her uniqueness among them was something she almost wasn't expecting to hear. There was a conflict in her mind about whether to deflect from these friends to spare her own feelings or to satisfy her curiosity and ask about these people Chloe had never met.

Ultimately, curiosity won out. "Ash has brought other friends here?" she asked, inwardly cringing at the somewhat hurt inflection in her voice that she hadn't intended to express.

As Chloe's back was to the woman, she couldn't see her expression, but her tone didn't betray any reaction to Chloe's delivery. "Goodness, yes. He's brought lots of friends to meet me. Nearly all of them are like him, though; they're career Pokémon trainers of some kind. Gym Leaders, or Coordinators. That sort of thing."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Chloe said, trying her best to not show her emotions on her face. She returned to her task of preparing the soil for the carrot seeds.

Mrs. Ketchum smiled at the girl. "You'll find your path one day soon, I'm sure," she said, offering Chloe some encouragement.

Chloe nodded, though privately she held some skepticism that she'd ever find out what was right for her. "Right now, I'm just trying things out. Some stuff I'm sure will stick with me, but other stuff… Well, it's like how you're pruning the tomato plants. Some parts have to be cut off to make the whole stronger."

In her mind, Chloe thought about cutting off her nascent feelings for Ash that had been growing over the past few weeks. Given everything that had occurred since she set foot in Pallet Town, maybe it would be for the best if she gave them up right now before they could do her any more harm.

Turning back to the plant by her side, Mrs. Ketchum ran a thumb over one of it's thin, soft leaves. "Plants aren't so different from Pokémon or people," she said, cradling the branches of the small plant in her hand. "We all need a firm foundation to stand on and lots of love and care to grow into our best selves." She reached into the pocket of her jacket where she kept the shears. "But only showering those we care about with love and affection can spoil them. Discipline is important, too." She snipped one of the branches down to the trunk. "We can only grow into our best selves when we have the patient, kind support of people who really care about us enough to correct us when we go astray."

Bitterly, Chloe pulled open the packet of carrot seeds. "But that foundation is important, too," she said somewhat acridly. "You can't grow anything if the soil won't take, or if the seeds are choked out by weeds." She began dropping seeds in the holes she and Eevee had dug up.

Mrs. Ketchum had a wry smile on her face. Chloe glanced up at her and saw the smirk, looking much like her son's face. "Even skilled gardeners can be wrong about a soil's condition, though."

Chloe paused as Eevee continued covering the seeds with dirt. "What do you mean?"

"Perhaps you think the soil's gone through too much to support a new plant, or maybe you think that the plants nearby would stop a new seed from germinating," she said. "But some plants are more tenacious than others, and they can take root even when it feels like they shouldn't." Ash's mother turned to her and smiled. "People and Pokémon are the same way. Maybe someone doesn't seem receptive to others, but they can get very attached to the right person."

"Eievui!" chimed in the Evolution Pokémon, having finished burying the seeds.

Chloe wondered briefly if they were still talking about plants. "E-Even still," she interjected, a nervous feeling rising in her chest, "it's possible to take root in a bad place. If a plant grows somewhere it doesn't belong, then you'll have to move it or trim it down to stay where it belongs, right?"

"I suppose," Mrs. Ketchum conceded. "But if a plant were to pop up unexpectedly, it could be quite beautiful, don't you think? Maybe all you need to do is give it time, and it might bloom into a beautiful flower."

"But it could also be a weed," Chloe said, turning her attention back to Eevee, who sat wagging her tail. The Normal-type smiled at her, not picking up any of the subtext to Chloe's words. "And you might be doing harm to everything around it by not removing it sooner."

"Then the question becomes… are you willing to take that risk, Chloe?"

The student looked back over her shoulder at Ash's mother. "R-Risk?" Her stomach did a somersault. 'There's no way…'

"You could have a beautiful, if somewhat unconventional and unexpected, garden if you let these seeds grow and nurture them, or you could weed them out immediately to protect the rest of the garden from harm. That choice is up to you."

Chloe blinked in the woman's direction. "It's up to me…?"

"Of course!" she said. "Everyone gets to decide what grows in their garden. Whether it's perfectly chosen or blanketed with wildflowers, it's always a choice."

The sliding door on the side of the house opened up, and Ash stuck his head outside. "Hey, Mom? I uh… might need something more than those sandwiches…" There was an innocent smile on his face, one that disarmed Chloe's defenses as usual. Recounting Mrs. Ketchum's words, she thought to herself 'I have a choice to make right now. Do I want to yank out this weed? Or do I want to try and grow wildflowers?'

In her heart, she knew the answer.

While his mother giggled, Chloe stood and put her hands on her hips. "Honestly," she said in mock annoyance. "Your Mom goes through all that trouble to make you a lunch and you already blast through it," she said, stepping closer to him.

"H-Hey," he said, taking one step back inside. "Like I said, Z-Moves take a lot of energy…!"

"It wouldn't do to have her back in the kitchen after making breakfast AND preparing you a lunch, so I'll go cook something," Chloe said, smirking at him. "I know a good recipe for cream stew."

Ash blinked, looking at her like she had something strangely profound. "Wait, I didn't know you could cook!"

"I am a girl of many talents," she said, pushing past him and heading back in the house. Eevee and Yamper chased behind her, almost tripping Ash as they darted between his legs.

"H-Hey! How long will it take?" Ash called as he began following her inside.

Mrs. Ketchum giggled to herself as she turned back to her gardening. "So that's her choice," she said to herself. She began humming to herself, wondering just what would sprout from the seed that she planted.

The next morning felt like it came very early. Having only just narrowed her backpack to contain what she would need in the forest, Chloe descended the stairs with the sun only just creeping over the mountains, casting long shadows over Pallet Town. She was at the top of the stairs, leading into the living room where she could hear Ash's mother was giving him instructions, so she decided to hang back a bit.

"It's pretty lucky that Chloe knows how to cook," Mrs. Ketchum said, continuing from some statement Chloe wasn't able to hear. She grinned to herself before looking at Eevee, who had followed her to crouching on the stairs. "As long as you all can find water, that makes ingredients much easier to carry than already prepared food."

Ash shrugged. "It's only going to be a few days and we won't even be that far away. We'll be back before you know it!"

"I know," his mother responded. "But it's my job to make sure you know. And you should remember to brush your teeth in the morning and change your-"

"Mom! She might hear you!" Ash shouted over her words.

Giggling, Chloe thought now was as good a time as any to finish descending the stairs, which she did. She was dressed in something a bit different from usual; a light, airy sky-blue blouse and a pair of blue capri with a pink flower pattern around the legs. On her feet were a pair of sturdy shoes, perfect for hiking along the dirt paths around Pallet Town, and protecting her head was a tan newsboy cap to help shield her from the sun. She wore her mom's old pleather backpack, filled with the essentials (the rest of what she brought to Pallet Town was lying about in somewhat organized piles around Ash's room - she'd come back for them before going home).

Her arrival of course drew the attention of Ash and his mother, and his Mom was the first to respond. "Aww, how cute! It's a very nice outfit, Chloe!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Ketchum," she said, smiling as Eevee walked over to Pikachu to greet him with a smile and a wag of her tail.

Ash nodded as he adjusted his hat on his head with his left hand, his Z-Ring still glittering on his arm. "If we're all set, we should get going! You can see a bit about what being a Pokémon Trainer is all about!"

Pikachu pumped his fist towards Eevee on the floor. "Pikachu!"

Chloe nodded. "Right! Let's go!"

Eevee turned and scampered up Chloe to rest on her head and Pikachu took his usual resting place on Ash's shoulder.

"Hold on a sec," Ash asked, looking at her. "What about Yamper?"

The puppy was lying on the couch, sleeping after a heavy breakfast. Chloe giggled. "Well, we wouldn't want your Mom to be without someone to talk to, right? He can stick around here for a bit and enjoy her company."

Ash's mother giggled. "Thank you, Chloe. I'll take good care of him until you get back."

With a wave to Ash's mother on their way out, the two of them were off. Ash pointed them towards the mountains that rose to Pallet Town's western border, and they began walking.

Around her, Chloe saw many farmers working alongside Pokémon in their fields. She was somewhat surprised at the amount of rice paddies she saw. 'I guess we do eat a lot of rice, huh?' she thought to herself. 'Not that this is all for me.' Across the somewhat flat area, there were some Pokémon helping farm other plants as well. Chloe recognized a few plants that were growing, but she had never seen this many different kinds all at once.

Ash didn't seem to notice her wonderment, instead focusing on what was ahead. "There's so many cool places hidden around Pallet Town," Ash said over his shoulder to Chloe. "I know just the places to go check out! Maybe we'll see some rare Pokémon, too!"

"Do rare Pokémon live out here?" she asked.

Ash nodded. "Usually you'll see an Oddish or a Nidoran, but sometimes you can see a Kangaskhan, even!"

"Pikachu!" he chimed in.

Chloe hummed to herself. "That does sound pretty cool…" She felt like she was forgetting something, but she shrugged it off.

"Hey, maybe you'll even be able to catch a Pokémon!" he said. Now he was walking backwards, looking at her as they moved down the path and towards the forest. "Your first Pokémon besides Eevee! That could be fun!"

"I dunno if I want to catch another Pokémon just yet," Chloe said, frowning. "I still want to learn a bit more, to figure out what being a Pokémon Trainer means to me, you know?"

Ash nodded. "I gotcha. But still, maybe you and Eevee'll have a battle! That could be cool!"

She smiled at that. "That could be cool, as long as we don't get in over our head."

From her perch on Chloe's head, Eevee let out a mock-howl. "Eeeiieevuiiii!"

Ash and Chloe both laughed at the fierceness the Normal-type was demonstrating. Pikachu climbed onto Ash's head and gave a loud howl as well. "Kachuuuuuuuu!"

When they finally entered the woods, Ash and Pikachu became much more quiet. Chloe watched Ash's brown eyes dart from left to right, with Pikachu raising his tail and ears as well. Eevee was on her head, mimicking Pikachu's movements, though her paws didn't quite find as much purchase on Chloe's hat as Pikachu found on Ash's shoulder. She slipped off Chloe's head, and only the girl's swift reaction caught Eevee in her arms.

"Seems pretty safe, right buddy?" Ash asked after a solid 5 minutes of silence.

"Pikapika," the mouse agreed.

"I figured that's what you guys were trying to do," Chloe said. "I guess all the traveling you've done, you're used to doing this?"

He nodded back. "Yeah. I had a few friends who were better at this sorta thing than I am, but we can manage pretty well, right buddy?"

"Pikachu!"

Chloe giggled at their double-act. "Well, I do see a few Pokémon," she said, looking up into the trees to see a nesting Pidgey. "But I guess they're not very aggressive."

"The Spearow around here are somethin' else, though," Ash said, chuckling under his breath. Pikachu did the same.

Chloe shrugged at their private joke. "In any case, I guess this is where we do a bit of exploration? Trainers do that, right?"

Ash nodded. "Yup! There's a place I wanna show you, but it's gonna be a hike. Are you ready?"

Smirking back, Chloe responded "I can handle it."

Ash began leading her through the trees. There were a few Pokémon she saw in the brush watching them; an Oddish and a Rattata, the sorts of things Ash had mentioned that she recognized. 'It's honestly not that different from Vermilion City when you get down to it. I guess Kanto is still Kanto, no matter where you go.' She smiled at the thought, drawing some comfort from it.

Maybe the distance between herself and Ash wasn't so insurmountable after all.

As they walked deeper into the forest, Ash pointed out a large boulder lying in the middle of the trees. "See that?" he said. "That's the first checkpoint."

Chloe looked at the rock. It was huge compared to them, but given its location, it wasn't exactly in any position to harm them. As she approached it, she saw a green layer of moss growing off the top of it. "It's so big, right, Eevee?" she asked.

Eevee raised her head up towards the rock to give it a sniff. When she did, she wrinkled her nose before breaking out into a sneezing fit.

"Maybe th' moss doesn't agree with her?" Ash asked, stifling a laugh.

"Guess not," she said, picking Eevee off the ground with a smirk. "We'll get away from this rock. You'll be fine."

"Eievui…"

As they pressed onwards past the rock, Chloe looked upwards through the trees. It was a beautiful day, though most of the sky was obscured by the trees and their foliage. She idly thought about asking Ash if they should stop for lunch, but looking at him, he seemed to be forging ahead just fine. The question danced on her tongue for only a moment before she swallowed it back. 'No, if he's fine right now, we might as well go until he thinks about getting something to eat.'

Continuing to follow Ash, the two of them soon came to a river. At the point where Ash brought them, Chloe saw a bridge connecting the side on which they stood to the opposite side.

Ash pointed to the bridge. "This is the second checkpoint. The place I wanna take you is across this bridge and then maybe a few more minutes of walking.

Chloe once again considered the bridge, though the more she looked at it, the more she began to worry over it. It was clearly not a new structure here in the middle of this forest. The boards that made it up looked half-rotted through at best, and the ropes holding the boards didn't look much better than that. Slowly her gaze turned to the river, and she caught a glimpse of a Magikarp beneath the waves getting pulled downstream by it's rapid flow.

She swallowed. "You're not saying we're crossing here, are you?"

Ash was already approaching the bridge when her words made him pause. "Uh, yeah? Why?"

"This bridge is clearly unsafe," she said, pointing to it. "It looks like it's older than Professor Oak and half the boards look like they'd snap as soon as you put any weight on them!"

Ash looked at it for a moment, then back to Chloe. "I-uh, I guess but I can't think of another way."

Chloe gave him an annoyed glare. "Why don't you call out Dragonite to carry us across?"

"Hehe…" he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I kinda left Dragonite back at the lab so she could hang out with the rest of the Pokémon I have there. And Gengar… and Lucario and Sirfetch'd and Dracovish. It's just you, me, Pikachu, and Eevee!"

"Pikapika…" his partner sighed.

Chloe looked at the bridge again. "W-Well…" Looking at it closely, there did seem to be pieces that looked sturdier than others. 'If it had lasted this long while kids as rambunctious as Ash would cross it, it couldn't be that dangerous, right?' She took a deep breath. "Well, I guess we'll give it a shot."

Ash's eyes lit up. "You won't regret it! It's totally worth it to see what's on the other side."

"Pikapika!"

"Just let me go first," Chloe sighed. "That way you're still on stable ground to do something about it."

Ash nodded. "Got it!"

Chloe looked down at Eevee on the ground. "We'll cross together, okay?"

"Eievui!"

Chloe took a first hesitant step onto the bridge, testing it with her weight. The boards seemed strangely reliable despite their apparent age, and she stepped more onto the bridge. Holding onto the ropes, she instantly became aware of the swaying of the ropes and the boards, but she began working her way across. Slowly, step by step, Chloe and Eevee made their way.

At about the halfway point, just as she was about to put her weight on the next board, Ash shouted out at her. "Chloe!"

She froze in place, turning her head back to face him. "W-What?!" she asked in surprise, her heart pounding in her chest.

"You're doing great! This is the sorta thing Pokémon Trainers who travel do all the time!" He was shouting this encouragement to her with her hands cupped around his mouth. "Just a bit further."

Smiling a bit uneasily, she waved at him before turning back to the task at hand and continuing to make her way across the bridge. Looking ahead, Eevee was already mostly across, having not been distracted by Ash's shout. The Evolution Pokémon hopped off the wooden planks back onto the solid ground and turned to look at her, smiling and wagging her tail gently. Chloe nodded to Eevee and slowly, but confidently, finished making her way across.

Taking a moment to relax, she sat on the ground by the bridge and waved at Ash. The Trainer nodded and waved back before turning his head to say something to Pikachu, who hopped off his shoulder at that moment. Chloe watched Ash and Pikachu look at each other for only a moment longer before racing across the bridge, with Pikachu running along the rope and Ash dashing across the bridge. Chloe felt like her heart had stopped cold as they ran so recklessly. Though, watching them, the bridge didn't seem to strain or stretch, and the two of them crossed much faster and easier than Chloe and Eevee had managed to.

When the two of them landed on the opposite side, they flashed Chloe a grin, and she stood back up. "We're almost there!" Ash said, the excitement still clear in his grin. "C'mon!"

He began walking past her, causing Chloe to stand up and blink as she watched him. "I wonder what it is that he's so excited to show me…? He hasn't mentioned food once since we left his house." She chased after him, with Eevee chasing behind Chloe as well.

There was another section of forest separating them from their destination, and as they drew closer to it, Ash's excitement only seemed to grow. "You're gonna be so psyched when you see this!" he said between bouts of private laughter.

Looking through the trees for a hint of what Ash was talking about, Chloe squinted her eyes. All she could see for as far as her eyes looked were trees.

"...!"

Between two of them, though, she saw a hint of something bright and colorful. Brilliant pink and blue hues were peaking between the trees, causing Chloe's steps to hasten. At first she only walked a little faster, closing the distance between herself and Ash, but as they drew closer to the clearing they were headed to, Chloe began to move even faster until her steps broke out into a run.

Ash stopped short to let her and Eevee run past before breaking into a light jog of his own.

When Chloe finally stepped through the treeline, her eyes widened and she gasped. "This…!"

In the clearing there were many small flowers, growing in the wild. All of them had bright pink petals, but the closer to the pistol the petals were, their hue shifted from a bright pink to a bright blue. The clearing was blanketed with these flowers in a wide area, a breathtaking carpet of pinks and blues that left Chloe speechless.

Ash stepped up next to her. "It's pretty incredible, right?" he said. "I found this place a few years before my journey started, but I still come back here sometimes when I'm at home and I don't have anywhere else to go. Sometimes you can even see Pokémon here. Like there! Look!"

His finger pointed to the sky, and two Butterfree descended from the sky and down to the ground and the flowers, leaning their faces down to taste their nectar.

Chloe took a few steps closer and gently cupped one of the colorful flowers, careful not to disturb its growing from the ground. "This is a little beauty tulip…!" she said, the awe still caught in her voice.

Ash blinked at her, surprise now on his face. "Wait, you know what it's called?"

She nodded. "They're supposed to be really difficult to grow in greenhouses and in gardens, though not impossible. The school garden where I help out has a few blooming in it. But this…? All of this…?" She gestured to the entire clearing, filled with flowers. "This is… breathtaking. It's gorgeous. It's… it's…"

'Romantic', the thought completed in her mind, though she wouldn't dare give it voice.

Ash smiled. "I'm glad you like it," he said. "I know you and my Mom were talking in the garden yesterday about plants or something, so I thought since you liked them, this would be a cool place to get started with learning about being a trainer." He looked up from her to the field and then to the sky. "Pokémon Trainers find this sort of thing a lot. It's part of exploring and traveling."

Chloe looked out over the field. "You can really find some beautiful things while travelling, can't you?"

Ash shrugged but then nodded. "I uh… yeah…" He chuckled. "I'm not the best with words sometimes but yeah, it is, isn't it?"

Chloe stood and turned to give Ash a wide smile. "Thanks, Ash. I really appreciate you taking me out here."

Ash pumped his fist. "From here on, I want you to plan our course, okay? Part of trainers travelin' together is that you both decide on which way to go. If stuff gets dangerous, I can help out, but you wanted to learn about being a trainer yourself, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, and that means I've gotta make choices for me."

He grinned back. "Now you're gettin' it."

A groaning sound came from Ash's stomach, and Chloe giggled. "I think the first choice I'll make, then, is to stop for lunch, since it sounds like someone's hungry."

Ash laughed. "Y-Yeah! I hope what you make's as good as the stew from yesterday! That was amazing!"

"I'll do my best. Can you set the area up?"

"You've got it!"

Chloe took a moment to watch them, thinking to herself. 'This is the sort of thing a Trainer does all the time, isn't it? It's pretty incredible to think that people see things like this all the time. Even if these are just my first steps into this world, I finally feel like coming out here is starting to be worth it.' As Ash and Pikachu began setting up a place for a campfire, Chloe's mind began to wander to just what tasty dish she'd whip up for lunch.