If there was one place in the world Ash Ketchum did not like visiting, it was the hospital. Not from any dislike of doctors or fear of needles. 'Though Gary still owes me for not spilling THOSE beans,' he thought as he sat in the office waiting for the doctor in Pallet Town's small yet local doctor's office to see him. The room smelled clean, but not the natural clean that Ash was used to that he could smell outside. It was a cloying cleanliness that reminded Ash of the smell of chemicals and disinfectants.

Pikachu sat on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek, trying to get him to cheer up, but it wasn't going to work. Not right now, anyway.

"Ash, what's wrong?" came the friendly voice to his right.

Leaning his head past Pikachu, he saw Chloe sitting in the seat next to him to his right, holding Yamper in her lap. Before they parted ways, Tracey had taken Eevee with him to run some check-ups on her after her battle with Nidoking a few hours ago. 'Eevee sure fought hard…' he thought to himself, reimagining the small Pokémon's movements rather than responding to Chloe's question.

"Don't worry, Chloe," his mother responded to the girl's question instead. "He just doesn't like visiting the doctor very much." She was seated to his left and just looked over his head with her superior height. She didn't have a Pokémon with her; Mr. Mime was busy making dinner back at the house. "Every time I would bring him here, he'd get told not to go outside for a few days and you can guess how much Ash hates being cooped up in his room!"

Chloe giggled a little. "Yeah, I can imagine."

Ash sighed, unable to escape because of his twisted leg. "I'm right here, you guys…"

Both Chloe and his mom just giggled at him as the nurse called from her station. "Ash Ketchum? The doctor will see you now."

Chloe stood, with Yamper slipping out of her lap and onto the ground. Chloe offered Ash a hand, which he took. Chloe helped pull him to his feet and put his arm around her shoulders to help support Ash, so that he wouldn't need to put his weight on his ankle. Ash watched his mother say something to the nurse, but it went right over his head. Something about 'health insurance', he thought.

Once they were in the doctor's office (a sparsely decorated room with a few plants, a computer, and a bookshelf), Chloe helped Ash sit down carefully without any further incident on the examination bed before sitting down in a chair against the wall. Shortly thereafter, Ash's mother stepped in as well and sat next to Chloe. Ash looked over at the two of them and his mother smiled back while Chloe was busy staring into her phone, probably looking at some pictures or something. 'I still don't know all the stuff you can do with these phones…' Ash thought to himself, reaching up to pet Pikachu. The mouse cooed under his touch as the doctor entered. He was a balding man who looked to Ash to be in his 50's or 60's - his hair was a salt-and-pepper gray, and his face bore a serious expression. It was the same doctor Ash had a lot of experience talking with after coming out of the woods after playing with Pokémon that went too far, or in less happy moments, after getting into a fight at school.

"Good afternoon, Ash," the doctor said, sitting across from him. "And you as well Mrs. Ketchum. And… who are you, young lady?"

Chloe looked up from her phone, but before she could respond, Ash's Mom proceeded with the introduction. "This is Chloe. She's a friend of Ash's from Vermilion City. And this is her little Yamper."

"Yamp!" he said, happy at his acknowledgment.

"I was with him when everything happened," Chloe explained further. "We were together in the forests when during that rainstorm a few days ago, the cliff we were walking on gave way. Ash dove right in to save me, and so I've been helping take care of him ever since."

Ash exhaled a relieved sigh as he continued to scratch Pikachu behind the ears. He was glad Chloe glossed over the reason they were at the cliffside. It was better to leave arguments and disagreements like that in the past. Ash then hissed through his teeth as the doctor took his leg and lifted it up, placing his leg on the examination bed. "So Ash," he said. "This ankle is the only thing that seems to be still hurting?"

"Eheh, yeah," he said. "I'm pretty lucky that nothing worse happened, huh?"

The doctor looked at his ankle, the bandage Chloe put around it still there. "Looks like someone already beat me here, didn't they?"

"That was me," Chloe spoke up. "I know a bit of first aid, so when his ankle was still bothering him, I put the bandage around it to stop it from moving so much, and then I told him to not move it very much." Her neutral expression quickly morphed into a snarky one. "But you probably know Ash better than I do, and even I know that asking him to sit still is like asking the sun not to rise."

Everyone around him laughed, and even Ash found himself chuckling a bit. "Well, guess I can't deny that…" he said.

The doctor carefully unwrapped the bandage Chloe put on his leg, and began doing something similar to what she did when she was diagnosing him in that cave. "Tell me when it hurts."

Ash felt the man's cold fingers on his ankle and flinched at the feeling just below that. "Ow, yeah, there…!"

Chloe looked at him, her bright green eyes not missing a detail. "That wasn't as extreme a reaction as it was last time," she noted as Yamper waddled around her.

"You did a good job, young lady," the doctor said. "You were able to identify exactly what happened and you got it under control." He turned to Ash's mom. "Just have him stay off of it for about another day or so and he should be fine."

She smiled at Ash and patted his head, twisting his cap on his head. "Isn't that great, sweetie?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's grAAAH!" His response was interrupted by the doctor's cold hands applying a new bandage around his ankle.

"We can't have it accidentally getting worse, so I need to put the bandage back on. Sit still…"

Chloe giggled. "Poor Ash…" she said, giving him a look of sympathy that he caught out of the corner of his eye.

For the first time in what must have been months, Ash was laying in his own bed, looking at his own ceiling. The lights were off in the house and only the moonlight drifted in from the window. Ash had been up here with Pikachu since dinner (An event with a guest appearance by Tracey and one where Ash was able to eat FAR more than his fill). And he was bored. Normally he'd have fallen asleep by this time, but there was something keeping him awake. Something that Ash, even with all his experiences, couldn't explain.

He nudged Pikachu with his elbow. The mouse was sleeping next to him, clutching a doll that resembled a Pokémon. "Hey, buddy?"

Pikachu mumbled something in his sleep and turned over. Ash frowned at the sight. "The one night I can't just fall asleep…"

He laid there, looking out the window. The angle he had didn't let him see the sky, but he did see the outside lit up by the moon. Based on how dark it was outside the cave, he figured the moon must be half full by now, give or take. Seeing the grass outside in the moonlight wave gently as the wind blew past it made Ash sigh. He was frowning at the sight, more irritated that he couldn't get up and go sit in it than anything.

'Well, why can't I?' he thought. 'Pikachu's not awake to stop me, and Mom's probably asleep, too. I can probably sneak out.' A pause. 'Chloe might try to stop me, but I might be able to sneak past her. She did explain how she would sleep in, right?"

Smirking, he turned out of the bed and slowly made his way down the ladder near his bed and onto the floor. His ankle did sting him, feeling like Pikachu was giving it a Thundershock, but he'd experienced worse. Working through the pain, he slowly limped out the door to his room and then to the top of the stairs. Taking each step slowly, one at a time, he did his best to avoid the steps he knew creaked extra loud. It was an awkward stretch over them, but he did it quietly enough. He felt like he was home free as he stepped onto the ground floor.

'Sometimes I surprise myself,' Ash thought, quietly walking to the door and putting his hand on the knob.

"Ash Ketchum, where do you think you're going?"

He froze and looked over his shoulder. It was dark, but he saw a somewhat familiar shape in the darkness. Her fluffy hair gave her silhouette the appearance of a large, hairy Pokémon with a twist of hair spiraling off the top of her head. But if he compared Chloe to a hairy Pokémon, she might force him back up the stairs, and he didn't endure the pain in his ankle to be stopped here.

"Oh, uh… hey," the words came out as his brain began quickly coming up with a plan. Encounters with Chloe were almost mini-battles in their own right, weren't they? It was hard to predict just how she'd react to things. The best course of action would be to plan a strategy. 'The best defense is a good offense, so I should be the one who makes the first move.' He turned the door knob and opened the door. "...wanna sneak out with me?" he whispered.

The shadow that was Chloe recoiled in surprise. "Wh-what?! Outside at this time of night?"

"Shh!" Ash attempted to shush her. "Not so loud! You'll wake Mom an' Pikachu! And they'll just send me right back upstairs!"

Chloe crossed her arms. "Oh? And why don't you think I'll send you back upstairs?" He could barely see her face, but her tone was more amused than threatening. And to Ash, that sounded like an opening.

"Because I just want a second outside. I haven't got to see the sky in what feels like forever."

"You saw the sky earlier today," she countered. "In fact, you were in the sky when Tracey brought us back."

"You know that's not what I mean," he said, frowning. "Just a little time outside? I promise I won't run around."

He heard her sigh, which usually meant she was about to relent. "Okay. But only for a little bit! Then you go right back to bed, okay? I'm not going to have you blaming your hurting ankle on me."

He chuckled. "Thanks, Chloe. Besides, my ankle hardly hurts anymore. C'mon."

The late spring air cooly rushed around him as he stepped out into the night with Chloe right behind him. He took the moment they stepped into the pale moonlight to take a look at her.

The first thing that caught his eye was how the pale moonlight lit up her eyes. There was a shine to them that brought his mind back to the light that flooded out from his Z-Ring as she wore it on her wrist, tapping into its power to protect them both. Her pale skin from her hours spent inside studying had a strange glow about it, and Ash stepped aside and let her walk past. Her long hair cascaded down her back, not wild and frizzy like he had seen in the cave that morning, but flowing and relaxed. Her hair looked soft, almost like a Whimsicott's fluffy down, but he resisted the urge to touch it.

Chloe took a few steps out and looked at the house in the darkness. "It does feel really nice out here, doesn't it?" She was wearing her long pajamas, the same she wore to Laxton's farm and on their camping trip.

Ash nodded, refocusing his thoughts. "Yeah. I love cool nights like this. Sometimes I'd end up staying up all night with my friends and just talking, you know?"

Chloe smiled at him. "Well, I guess you guys would have a lot to talk about after a day of traveling, right? Talking about the stuff you see or the people you've met…"

"Yeah," Ash said, looking up at the stars. The skies around Pallet Town were always filled with stars, and he did prefer the sight of them to the sight of the dark skies over Vermilion. Clemont had told him about why the skies were dark like that once, calling it 'light pollution', so he understood why the city would have a less interesting sky than his hometown. But he still preferred it when he could see the sparkling stars.

Chloe's giggling brought him out of his trance. "I guess I didn't expect you to be so… wistful," she said, still smiling at him in the moonlight.

Ash went to adjust his hat, but since he was just wearing his pajamas, he ran his hand through his hair instead. "Sorry. When you talk like that, it makes it sound like I've been traveling for a really long time…"

A snarky laugh came from the professor's daughter. "I don't think you're some old man, Ash," she said. "You've just done a whole lot in such a short amount of time, you know? Not many people my age can call themselves a Champion, after all."

He chuckled in response. "Well, I don't really think about it much either," he admitted. "I mean, there's a reason you had to point directly at the trophy they gave me before I thought about telling you."

"Yeah…" Now it was Chloe's turn to look away from him. There was a dimness in her emerald eyes that made Ash feel like he made a mistake.

He stepped up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, just because I've done all this stuff doesn't mean I'm better than you or anything. You're way smarter than I am, besides. Remember? The ocean, right?"

She laughed a little. "Yeah, I remember the ocean," she said, looking up into the night sky for a moment, going quiet. Ash still almost felt like he made a mistake, but his thoughts were interrupted by what she said next.

"Hey, Ash? Can I ask you something?"

Ash was puzzled, but looked in her direction. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you…" she began before hesitating. "Do you think a time will come when you decide to stop traveling?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean," she said, still looking away from him, "you've traveled through a bunch of different places and gone all over the world. Do you think there'll be a time you… settle down and stop?"

Ash frowned, thinking. 'Settle down and stop? I mean, I guess one day, right? I'm not gonna be young forever. Only…' He shook his head. "I don't think so," he said as his thoughts came to him.

There was a smile that grew on her face, though she still didn't face him. Ash did notice a slight redness in her cheeks. 'Is it that cold out here?' he thought.

"That's the answer I was expecting," she said. "In that case, I'd like to ask you a favor."

This was getting complicated. "What favor?" he asked.

She finally turned to face him, smiling as she did. Her emerald eyes glinted mischievously in the moonlight. "When you do travel somewhere, if I'm not busy… could you take me with you?"

Ash leaned back, the gears in his head turning. He almost felt like there was something he wasn't quite getting. "I mean... you wanna come with me?"

"I know we only just talked about the ocean," she said, running a hand through her thick hair. "But that's not the only thing that's huge. The whole world is, you know? And I was just thinking… Maybe there's something out there that Eevee and I won't see unless we come with you. I've learned a lot at school, but there are some things I could never learn in a book. I want to see what it's like being a traveling trainer and learn things like…" She crossed her arms in front of her before moving them out in front, pointing them at Ash. Chloe then slashed her arm down before finishing the pose by crossing her arms over her face and chest. "Like this."

Ash smirked, grinning. "If you'd asked me to do a Z-Move in a spot like that, I dunno if I could have," he responded. "You were…" He faltered. He opened his mouth again to say what he thought, but he realized he didn't have the word for it. He shook his head and moved his hands together, forming a circle before making it explode . "It's like you and Eevee were like 'Babam!' you know?" he said. "It was so cool to watch! I can just picture it in my head!"

She giggled, her face turning redder. "Thanks, Ash. I think I get it."

"Only, I wonder why that Move came out…?" Ash asked. "That was Normalium Z, so Eevee should have only been able to use Breakneck Blitz. Instead, Eevee used Tectonic Rage, the Ground-Type Z-Move."

Chloe shrugged as she put a hand on her chin. Her face also returned to it's ordinary hue. "I dunno. I just had Eevee use her move where she copies what she sees. Maybe that's some sorta quirk about Eevee copying the move?"

"I'll have to ask Professor Kukui about it the next time we talk," Ash said, smiling. "There's so much to learn about Pokémon! It's seriously amazing! Working with your dad and Goh has really helped me learn a lot more about them!"

Chloe giggled. "I guess being a Professor's daughter does have its advantages," she said, smiling. "After all, if it weren't for my dad, I guess we wouldn't have ever met, right?"

Ash nodded, smiling. "Yeah! I'm really happy I got to meet you, Chloe! I'm learning a lot from you, too!"

"Not as much as I'm learning from you, I think," she said back, poking a finger into his chest. "I think we really are both learning a lot about each other."

Chloe looked up at him, smiling gently. The moonlight made her green eyes sparkle like two torches with green flames, and Ash felt a tinge of familiarity, like something he'd already experienced was about to happen again.

"So, will you take me with you?" she asked sweetly, her fluffy hair framing her face gently.

Ash nodded, not quite thinking through what he was saying. "Yeah, of course. The more the merrier, right?"

"Thanks Ash," she said, smiling at him. She looked like she was about to move for a moment, but then yawned and turned away. "I uh… I think it's time for us to get back inside and get some sleep."

Ash felt relaxed as well and stretched. "Yeah, I think so, too. Thanks for talkin' with me tonight, Chloe. I appreciate it."

Her emerald eyes sparkled once more. "Any time, Ash."

He sat up, and his surroundings were instantly familiar. He wasn't sure how he ended up back there, but Ash was sitting up in the cave he had awoken in after he caught Chloe when they fell off the cliff. Standing in front of him was that familiar girl, her maroon ponytail whipping in the wind as she stood with his back to him. On her wrist, she wore his black Z-Ring, and it glowed with intense power.

He shook his head. Had he been transported back in time? Looking at Chloe again, she was dressed in the pink blouse and jeans, not the blue blouse and bell bottom pants. The light of the Z-Ring was difficult to look past, and he could feel the waves of power emanating off of her. It was intense, but Ash managed to stand up.

The glow of the Z-Power faded, and now he and Chloe were standing in darkness.

"Thank you, Ash," she said, not turning to face him. "Thank you for everything."

Ash chuckled, still not quite sure what was going on, but he was going to roll with it. "You're welcome, Chloe. I'm glad I could help."

She nodded. "And now… I guess this is goodbye, isn't it?"

"Goodbye…?" Ash asked, furrowing his brow. "What do you mean?"

"I've finished learning everything from you that I can. And I know now what my goal is going to be." She turned to him, her emerald eyes dull and dark. "Thank you Ash. For everything. Now, goodbye. And good luck."

"Wait, Chloe!" Ash said, reaching out to her wrist. His fingers seemed to slip through her, though, like she wasn't truly standing before him.

The ground beneath his feet began to shift and crack, and looking around, Ash saw that the two of them were now in an endless, empty void of darkness. The ground cracked and split into two parts, one side for each of them. Ash's side shot up, lifting him higher and higher into the sky. But while Ash thought he was being pulled up, from his angle, it was more like Chloe was pulled away from him. His heart thundered in his chest as he seemed to rise to even higher heights, leaving Chloe behind. He ran to the edge of the cliff he was now standing on as fast as he could and jumped, reaching a hand out to her.

"CHLOE!"

She turned, seemingly hearing his voice. She saw him falling towards her with tears in her eyes. Ash fell closer and closer through the void, reaching his hand out to her until-

There was a loud crash as Ash's head hit the floor in his room. Pikachu looked over the edge of the bed. "Pikapi?!" he called out in shock.

Ash rolled over, seeing stars in his vision. "H-hey, buddy…" he stammered, his brain catching up with the situation at hand. Feeling the carpet under his palms, he realized that he had been dreaming after his talk with Chloe the night before. "I'm okay… I think."

He heard the thumping of footsteps rushing up the stairs as Chloe flung open the door to his room, now dressed in her grey top and yellow overalls. "Ash?! What happened?! Are you okay?!"

"I'm great," he said, still somewhat dazed. "Maybe I shouldn't jump off any more cliffs."

"Or at least off your bed," she said, frowning at him. "I thought you seriously got hurt…" Her eyebrows were furrowed at him, and her nose was turned up just a bit in concern. She sighed, setting aside the worry in her face and offered Ash a hand. "C'mon, we've got breakfast downstairs."

Ash took her hand and quickly rose to his feet at the sound of breakfast. He laughed, saying "Well, I'm never late to a meal or a battle and I'm not starting that now!"

Chloe giggled and turned back to the door. "Well, good! Come on, your Mom and I have been cooking all morning!"

The next few moments passed with a blur, with Ash grabbing Pikachu and heading downstairs to find Mr. Mime and his Mom setting their plates. Chloe, for her part, began serving pieces of french-fried toast and pieces of sliced up berries and fruit onto the plates before placing the bottle of syrup on the plate within Ash's reach. The whole meal was sweet and delicious, the sugary syrup contrasting with the tartness of the berries and bringing the whole thing all together.

Pikachu sat with Eevee and Yamper, eating and talking about something, but Ash wasn't paying close attention to them, instead focusing on the food that was in front of him. He paused for a moment, looking at Chloe as she ate from her plate, slowly popping half a strawberry into her mouth when he remembered the nightmare he had.

"I had the weirdest dream last night," Ash said, pointing his fork across the table at Chloe. "You were in it."

Chloe swallowed hard, coughing. Her cheeks turned red as she coughed the berry down her throat. "E-Excuse me?" she asked. "You dreamed about…?"

"You," Ash said, asserting it once more. "And it was about you using the Z-Move, too. Only…" He paused as he remembered the dream. "You said goodbye, because we had run out of stuff to learn about or something."

Chloe quickly downed her glass of water, trying not to look at him. She stopped when she heard about the goodbye. "I said goodbye?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! And then… boom!" He hit his hand against his mother's table, shaking the plates and cutlery. "The ground split and we were pulled apart! I called out to you but it was like you couldn't hear me! And then I uh…" He coughed. "I fell and hit my head."

Chloe's face was practically buried into her food at this point. She was stuffing the food into her mouth as quickly as she could, something Ash recognized as her trying to get away from the table. 'I thought I was the only one who did that.' He paused his thinking. 'Wait, why's she tryin' to get away?'

Ash began racing her through his plate, shoveling and chewing the tasty food. The delicious combination of flavors made it hard for Ash to rush, but it didn't seem to impede Chloe at all as she quickly polished off her plate, down to the last half of a strawberry. Quietly but quickly, she stood and took her plate to the sink. "I'm going to take Yamper and Eevee for a little walk!" she said, practically zooming out of the kitchen. "Be back in a little bit!"

The two Pokémon, hearing their names called and having long since already eaten their breakfast, got up and scampered after her with both of their tails wagging.

Ash reached out towards her, mouth still filled with food as she slipped away. He heard the door close behind her as she left. He swallowed the mouthful and frowned. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked, somewhat hurt.

"I don't think you did anything wrong, honey," his mom said, sitting in front of her half-eaten plate as Mr. Mime refilled her cup with water. "But you did talk about something that may have embarrassed her at the table."

Ash looked at his mom, growing more confused. "That I had a dream about her? I once dreamed that Brock and Max were the same person, only when he was Brock he was wearing stilts. When I told them, they just laughed about it. We all did."

His mother quietly laughed under her breath. "Well, Brock and Max are both boys, you know. It may be a little different when you talk about dreaming about a girl."

There was something in Ash's mind that felt like he should understand what his mother was referencing, but the pieces didn't fit together quite right. "You mean… I didn't see it the way she did?" he asked.

"Right," she said. "So maybe if you think about how she would look at the situation, you'll understand how she's feeling about you saying that."

Ash felt like the pieces finally started sliding together in his head. "...okay! So if I think about how she might be feeling about me saying that, I can figure out what she's thinking and that'll help me talk to her again when she comes back, right?"

"Now you've got it! So give it your best shot, okay, sweetie?"

Ash picked up his glass of water and downed the entire thing in one go.

"Got it! Thanks, Mom!"

"So why did you try calling me?!"

Goh was incensed at Ash's question, which just made the Palletonian sigh. He had just gone over just about everything relevant he could think of related to him apparently accidentally upsetting Chloe, and that was what his best friend had come back with.

"Well, you and Chloe have known each other for years, right?" Ash asked back. "I figured if anyone knew exactly what she was thinking, it'd be you, wouldn't it?"

Goh's voice came through the phone, sounding tired. "Ash, you said your Mom told you to think about why she might feel embarrassed or upset if you talked about dreaming about her. And your immediate thought was to ask me."

"Well, yeah," Ash said. "I didn't want to hurt her feelings but I feel like I keep doing it by accident sometimes and I can't figure out why. You've gotta know something, right?"

The phone went quiet for a moment. "Even if I did," came Goh's voice, "it wouldn't be my place to tell you when Chloe should be the one saying it."

'Wait, so he does know something…?' Ash thought.

"So that's my advice to you, Ash," Goh said. "You need to talk to Chloe about this."

"But she left!" Ash replied.

"Then wait for her to get back."

There was a moment of silence between them, with Ash at a loss of what to say. Goh was the next to speak.

"Sorry, Ash," he said. "I know you trust in me to help be your brains sometimes, like how I rely on you to be my brawn at other times. We're a team as Research Fellows, and you know in any other situation, I've got your back. But the problem here isn't one of brains or brawn. It's of heart. And the only one who can tell you what's going on in Chloe's heart is Chloe herself. That's the best way I can put it."

Ash nodded. "Got it. Thanks, Goh."

"No problem, Ash," he responded. "Good luck. It may be scary to just come out and ask her what she's thinking but I'm sure you'll figure out a way to ask."

"Right! I'll figure out a way. Thanks, Goh!" He hung up the call and looked up from where he was sitting. He was at the desk in his room as Pikachu lay curled up on his bed. Chloe hadn't come back yet, but it hadn't been that long since breakfast. He just couldn't wait to call Goh and ask him what he thought.

He looked at everything in the room, all his familiar belongings, searching for ideas. "How can I understand what she's feeling? I bet if I ask her, she'll just get embarrassed again."

His eyes landed on the dresser with all his trophies on it. Only, next to the Clefairy Doll he got from Lillie was the Pikachu Doll he won at the arcade in Vermilion with Chloe. It looked a little worse for the wear, having gone with them through the fight with Team Rocket, into the river, and then drying out, but it was still well cared for, almost in better condition than Lillie's Poké Doll.

"Pikachu…" he said under his breath, looking at it.

"Pikapi?" came the response from his bed, which Ash knew was how his partner said "Ash?"

He chuckled. "Sorry, buddy. I'm just tryin' to figure something out."

"What's that?" Pikachu responded in his own Pikachu speech. The time spent alongside him had given Ash an understanding of what his partner meant when he spoke, even if no one else did. It was something Cilan and Brock had both commented on in the past, the way their hearts were connected.

Ash didn't put too much thought into it, just responding to Pikachu's speech naturally. "You saw how Chloe ran off this morning. I think I made her upset, but I don't know how."

"Oh, that," the mouse responded, stretching his legs before crawling down the ladder. "And I guess Goh didn't think you could just ask her?"

"He does, but I don't," he responded. "It's like… you've been around her, right? There's a lot of times she's thinking something but you can tell she doesn't say what she's thinking. She's complex, you know?"

"Yeah…" Pikachu said, hopping up onto the desk so that he and Ash were closer to eye level. "Maybe we should think about the dream then."

"The dream?"

"Yeah! Let's go back through it. Maybe there's something in it that you missed."

Ash leaned back and thought over the dream. "We were in that cave and Chloe had just used a Z-Move. And she said…"

His mind replayed the words in her calm, kind voice. "I guess this is goodbye, isn't it?"

"She said she was leaving," he said, taking his hat off for a moment to scratch his head. "And in that moment… I really didn't want her to."

Pikachu's ears twitched. "You didn't want her to leave…?" he asked, tilting his head.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, it's like… the thought of her going somewhere was weird. I didn't like it."

"But Ash…" Pikachu said, lowering his ears, "...you know that she'll probably have to go somewhere someday, right?"

Ash held his tongue as he thought about that. 'Of course I know that,' he thought. 'If she discovers a dream she wants to chase with Eevee, I'd be all for it. But that goodbye felt… different. It felt like she was sad, too.'

"Ash?" Pikachu asked, hopping onto his shoulder.

Ash shook his head. "I just don't want her to be sad, Pikachu," he said. "You know I've had to get used to saying goodbye to everyone. I've had to say goodbye to way too many friends not to be used to it. But Chloe's not like the rest of 'em."

Pikachu tilted his head. "Why isn't she?" he asked.

"Because…!" Ash started, but he fell silent. He began wracking his brain. 'Because she's just started being a trainer? Well, I helped May and Dawn with that. Because she doesn't know what her dreams are? Serena needed help, too, and I was able to help guide her. What makes Chloe different?'

"Because?" Pikachu asked. Ash looked at his partner, and there was something mysterious in his gaze. At that moment, Ash wondered if Pikachu knew more than he was letting on.

"...Do you know, buddy?" Ash asked, looking at him.

Pikachu smiled and nodded. "I think it's because she's so different from you."

Ash furrowed his brow like he had just been challenged. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you and Chloe are really different. You grew up in the countryside, where she's lived in the city her whole life. You're really pumped about Pokémon, and she's kinda cool on us." Pikachu wagged his tail, dithering on whether he should say the next part before deciding to continue. "She's always had people around her like her dad or Goh or her classmates. You… we've talked about what things were like for you before we met."

Ash sighed. "I… I guess you're right about that. We are super different, but we're still really good friends, Pikachu. We both stood side by side against Team Rocket, and she protected me. She's really kindhearted, even if she doesn't show it all the time. It's just…"

"It's just what?" Pikachu asked.

"I… I can't figure her out. It's like there's a piece of her I can't reach, you know? What can I do to figure out that part…?"

Pikachu turned around quickly, slapping Ash in the face with his tail. Ash's cheek stung, and he looked at his partner in surprise.

"C'mon, Ash! You know a way to get to know people without words! All you have to do is that!"

Ash's eyes lit up. Pikachu's slap brought him back to his senses. "I know what we've gotta do now. Sitting around thinkin' about things won't help! So let's move!"

Pikachu hopped onto Ash's shoulder. "Where to, buddy?"

"To Professor Oak's! Hopefully we can make it there and back before Chloe gets back here!"