Cherry Prince and Princess
So have you ever stopped to really think about just how versatile Ash is as a shipping character? People toss Naruto around with everyone without a Y chromosome on instinct, and the odd Sasuke, but while Naruto is hardly unversatile in this regard Ash has accumulated so many facets and features over his thousand+ episode career that he can honestly ship with nearly anyone around his age, even those who you don't expect.
It is just hard to see them all because there are those who are just a lot more common to ship him with. I even stumbled on one I had always thought could have been bigger than it actually was while doing some stuff for a fic called Infinity Train; Knight of the Orange Lily: Ash x Acerola.
And seeing as I have a 'Cherry Bloodlines' verse to fill out…..
And for those more familiar with the regular bloodlines, Reset Bloodlines, why I don't just do it there….well as much as I love throwing ideas I see underused by the fandom in there like Secret Base camping and the Dream World, shipping is a bit more complicated and set up focused. New Ash ships are the one thing I can't really throw in on a whim. Anyway, before I begin…
The Main Stories of the Blossomingverse: Infinity Train Blososming Trail, Knight of the Orange Lily, and Voyage of Wisteria are the creations of Green Phantom Queen. I do some co-writing and have permission to bring over the writing bits I did with it for this side project that exists between our two universes. Cherry Bloodlines is a Fusion Fic between the Blossomingverse and the Resetverse.
"Wow..."
"Pika."
Ash and Pikachu were in agreement, the place they had found themselves at was pretty awe inspiring.
He had seen a few ruins in Alola since he first came. The Ruins of Conflict and Ruins of Life had been part of his two grand trials, and even outside of Alola he had seen his fair share of ruins and temples.
Sometimes they were mobile fortresses under the sea, sometimes time travel was involved, and sometimes a Regi was in the area. Were there any Regi in Alola?
The ruins here were….different. They were clearly more artificial and grand than the ones the Tapus were connected to, standing in the center of a huge, unnaturally round lake. The stone was gray and oddly lacking in vines, though it was crumbling.
"Welcome to the Lake of the Moone." Acerola declared. "Stopping here on the way to find Tapu Bulu's a bit of a long cut, but I've seen a symbol like the one on that dark Z-crystal you have here and it is associated with shadows."
Ash glanced at the crystal he received from the tiny shadow fighter some time ago, and sure enough, the same symbol was prominently shown on the walls.
If he was Brandon, he could probably read what was engraved into the walls here. It was clearly some sort of words, but he couldn't tell if it was a speech of how great the builders were, a warning of doom, or an ancient recipe for jelly-filled doughnuts. Fortunately it also had engravings of people, and he could get a few things out of that.
There were kings of thrones, as they had king stuff like capes, crowns, sceptres, and stuff. Not quite what he'd see in other regions, but a fancy thing on your head was a crown in his book. Many were flanked with Alolan Meowth and Persian, which he had read were tied to ancient Alolan Kings. They were apparently all once normal Meowth who were pampered so much they became cruel and spiteful and actually changed. It must have been like an entire family of Team Rocket's Meowth without any talking.
There were images of battles, wars, feasts, triumphs, mourning the death of kings, and so on and so on. Though there was one thing he did notice.
There were also depictions of ancient queens and princesses, and they….well they kind of looked like Acerola. They had similar hair, and he could see some faint color that looked to be a similar shade to Acerola's, and some of the younger princesses looked a lot like Acerola, just in older and fancier clothes. One of the kings….well he smiled like Acerola, which was kind of unsettling because the depiction of him featured him smiling as someone was being stepped on by an Alolan Exeggutor. Was that some sort of ancient method of execution!?
Er….to not think about that….
"Hey Acerola!" Ash pointed to the picture. "Am I seeing things, or…"
"Yep, they do look like me. These are actually my ancestors going back centuries and centuries. I'm the last of their line." She explained, a look that wasn't quite as peppy as she usually had.
"So you're a Princess?" Acerola would not be the first princess he had ever met. The first Princess…...who would be the first Princess? It wasn't Salvia…
"...Eh, not quite. My family lost that status years ago. Alola hasn't had a king in lifetimes. It's just something that hangs over your life if you let it. My dad…..well, he let the ghosts of the past linger around him…." She didn't elaborate, but he felt like he got the picture. The guy felt like as a once king by blood he should be more special than he was treated and was probably a bit of a butt about it.
"So is Nanu also…."
"No, he and I aren't related. He's a lazy bum but….well, he's a good guy. To me, and the Meowth….well no one else really but he's more than I'd have otherwise. He doesn't let the past dictate how he should be treated and seen."
The way Acerola said it made him wonder if Nanu had some deep and secret past of his own. Huh….
"It's not really anything like you…..but I guess it relates. I've traveled all over the world, and one of the places I traveled to was a place called Rota. It's a place in the north of Kanto, and I honestly can't remember what it exactly is. Its own country, a semi-country, a place with its own identity….I have no idea really. There they venerate this ancient hero guy named Sir Aaron, who used this thing called Aura."
"Oh, that's so cool!" Acerola gasped. "Aura is the ability to sense and understand all living things right?"
Ash sighed with relief. "Good that you know what it is, because I suck at explaining it. Well, long story short I have the same power, and after mentioning it to my mom afterwards, she did one of those 'ancestry' things. Apparently….he was my great-great-great….well, ancestor is probably enough. Me and my mom are his descendants through him and his queen Rin, making us really distantly related to the current ruler of Rota named Ilene. Really distantly, like so distantly that it won't matter unless a lot of people die at once before they go 'all hail Queen Delia', which is my mom's name. And unlike my mom I also have some affinity for Aura…"
"So can you use it? It would probably help you figure out what Nanu is planning, he has a poker face like a Mudsdale but if you can read his emotions and thoughts and stuff that would be a huge edge."
Ash shrugged. "It's not really my thing though. I have what I want to do with life and that's to be a Pokémon Master. I have some idea of what learning to be an 'Aura Master' entails and it...well it isn't really me and I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do. All it would really do is let me handle random stuff I run into better….and if I'm preparing for that all day I'd never get to do anything I want to do."
"So the only way that you'd be able to read Nanu's mind and not let him trick you, is basically if you didn't have time to battle him at all."
"Basically, or at least until I'm as old as he is."
The two were quiet for a bit, neither sure what to say next, until Acerola broke the silence after her gaze went to one particular carving of an ancient royal.
"You know there is actually a story about how one of my ancestors once rode an 'Emissary' from this very lake into another world. They say there he met an alternate version of themselves who was the opposite gender and…." Acerola giggled. "Well, it got weird."
He couldn't imagine himself flirting with an Ashley or Mirror Ash in that scenario, though maybe a Brocklette and Brock...
"Now just imagine that, maybe we'd go into some other world and find 'Princess Acerola, seventeenth of her name' and 'Sir Ashton Ketchum, royal squire'." Acerola giggled, thinking the idea to be silly. It was, and fortunately distracting from a tale of two Brocks brocking at each other.
"Oh yeah, that would be funny. But wouldn't I actually be 'Prince Ashton Ketchum', which isn't actually my name but I don't think royals are allowed to have normal names so…."
"Yes! Hail Prince Ashton Oakfurt Aaronsworn Gloriosaus Dilbert Ketchum!" Acerola cheered.
"Only after hailing Princess Acerola LeleFin Exegguorisia Solgalea Anela whatever your last name is, Seventeenth of her name!" Ash mock bowed to Acerola, who laughed some more.
"No even better! All announcing the royal union of Prince Ashton Oakfurt Aaron Gloriosaus Dilbert Ketchum and Princess Acerola LeleFin Exegguorisia Solgalea Anela Pualani, Seventeenth of her name! All pre-arranged without any of their consent of course!"
"Oh man that sucks...no offense, I mean the arranged marriage part."
"None taken! They do suck, especially as you aren't the Alolan in the situation. Alolan princes and kings got to marry multiple wives, while you'd be stuck with little old me forever!"
The two of them laughed and laughed at the scenario...until they heard a third voice from behind that caused them to jump.
"AGH! GHOST!" Rotomdex suddenly shouted.
...
That was a lifetime ago, quite literally. While as far as he could tell he hadn't actually aged….or something…..after that or before that even as Lei was both conceived and born and competed in the World Coronation Series, seen the destruction of a family and a friend lost to misery and hatred, and then saw the world be destroyed and quickly recreated.
A lot had changed since then: in this new version of reality trainers started at age 15 and time actually flowed as it should again. All of the odd powers and quirks he had seen from all over, from talking to Pokemon to summon rain to turning people into dolls for one's twisted amusement were all part of this one broad group of things, and sometimes it felt like the way the story was told flowed differently.
He wasn't sure how to describe it, it was like his life was a book with a different tense or something….
But some things didn't change. Pikachu was still his best buddy and he was able to find so many of his other buddies and they could remember what was just like he did. He was going to be a Pokemon Master and his name was not Ashton Oakfurt Aaron Gloriosaus Dilbert Ketchum. It was just Ash Ketchum, as it should be.
Though speaking of such a dreadful name…
He wasn't alone, sitting at the edge of a seaside cliff overlooking the ocean. A familiar friend was sitting next to him, though if Pikachu was telling the truth maybe friend was not quite the right word.
Acerola was sitting next to him, and in a lot of ways she was just as she was in the old universe. She had puffy purple hair, a cat smile when she was happy, and her dress looked self knit from other garments. However in a lot of ways she was different too.
She was older for one, looking more like a teenage princess than a little kid one. Her hair was longer, and that was a newer thing since they had crossed paths in Kanto. Pikachu had a bit of fun pointing out just why she blushed when he asked about why she was growing it out. Where once they had been about the same height, he was now notably taller and larger than her. She had been in Kanto when they crossed paths with no sign of Nanu, Tapu Bulu, Marshadow, or any others involved in their original story...
But if he thought of all the little ways everyone was different he'd go nuts, and it was just as easy to only think of their similarities. The differences were just how they were older and with a bit of a different path.
"...I don't think anyone has really been able to talk to you about some of the specifics that happened….you know….." Acerola said after taking a seat next to him.
They had talked about a lot after the whole Sabrina thing. A lot had happened during it: Primeape, Belladonna of all people being involved in his rescue, him creating a Psychium-Z Z-Crystal from thin air….but he had an idea of what Acerola was specifically talking about. A topic that had only come up a bit, but quickly was left alone to focus on other things.
"My father, yeah. Kind of hard to ignore him, no matter how much I might want to."
Before everything was reset, his father was a non-factor in his life and had always been so. Back when time didn't move properly and Iris wasn't prone to joining him in showers without understanding just how awkward that was he knew his story well enough. He was a man who had said some pretty words to his mom and was quite happy with the fact that he was with a cover model from Pokemon Pals. Then she had gotten pregnant and he quickly vanished, never to be seen again or ever involved in his life.
As far as he cared to think about, he didn't exist. Most everything about him that ever came up was from his mom's side of the family anyway.
But a different man was his father this time, and he was worse.
"As much as you might want to ignore a bad legacy, it always seems to follow you wherever you go. People see you as something other than yourself. Sometimes it helps and more often than not it just hurts. You had both just recently."
That he had. Sabrina had grabbed him because his father was a person so terrible she, someone who was as bad as she had ever been without a personality split like the last time, found to be a terrible human being. It was some twisted sort of test to make him 'ready' to eventually fight him on top of everyone else who he would be stopping for a second time.
The Iron Masked Marauder, Cyrus, Ghetsis, Lysandre, Parker Cerise, and all the other evil people he had met once and was seemingly set to meet again, and his new father. His new father and all the others he had brought into the world were the same as him. A connection that had also helped get him out of that mess.
But his exact thoughts on all the siblings of his he kept running into: Red, Yellow, Belladonna, Midori, were their own individual bundles of uncertain feelings. Especially Belladonna…..
"You sound like you know that from experience." He cautiously raised. While a lot of things were the same, plenty were different. He didn't want to stumble into a mess caused by that again, not after Misty and her sisters…..
"You could say that. Would you believe me if I told you I am the last of Alola's royal family?" She cautiously pressed.
"You often jokingly call things you do a 'royal touch'. You knitting that hole in my jacket was a 'royal touch', you going through Princess Day and all that caused a 'royal excursion', stuff like that." He was cautious on how he framed it. He hadn't really thought about the whole 'hey I met most everyone we run into before' much thought at first and after he had he….had no idea how to handle the giant vat of questions and issues it could raise if he ever let it slip. He had thought maybe because he still had to remake any friendships and bonds he had originally it wasn't as iffy, as that idea had worked with his battling skills. Just because he knew that Lt. Surge would try to pulverize him with a Raichu didn't mean he didn't have to work with his team to be strong enough and skilled enough to not get pulverized by his Raichu after all.
However the more he thought of it the more he came to feel it was two different things and all the questions it raised….well he had no idea how they'd take it so he was careful to never let it slip.
"...Yeah, I guess I do. It's a force of habit, and I try to make it a bit of a joke. Because that is what it honestly is. But I actually am the last member of the once illustrious royal house of Alola. Princess Acerola LeleFin Exegguorisia Solgalea Lunalala Pualani, Seventeenth of Her Name, and ideally the last of so many names if I can help it…"
Her name was actually that this time, or close enough to it? She had said that as a joke the last time, and the way she said her full name was framed as silly. Her tone was completely lacking in seriousness of any sort.
"I'm sorry." He said in regards to both her lack of a living family and having that trainwreck of a name.
"You should apologize to the people who have to write it out for official forms." She quipped, sounding like she wanted to personally apologize to the people who wrote those names on her birth certificate.
"My father…..he was obsessed with the ghosts of the past. The royal family of Alola is long out of power, but the specter of it always haunted him. In his mind he was the rightful king of Alola, and it affected everything he ever did." She continued.
"So he lived in the past." He basically surmised.
"Indeed, and it didn't help there were those who would fan his flames for their own interest, and let them continue to burn even when they no longer needed him. The past was royal, the present had bills he wasn't paying. The past was grand, the present was squalor. The people who came to him and called him by his proper titles were there to pay him his respects he was owed and restore him, not use him for their own reasons for as long as they had use of him. All that mattered was what was and what 'should be' again. I never read anything that wasn't related to my ancestors before he died, and I can still remember everything clearly. It's all but engraved into my mind." She tapped the side of her head.
"Before I was seven I could recount every great deed they ever did. I could tell you from memory about how Queen Acerola Tapuala Exeggusorisia Solgalea Pualani, Seventh of Her Name, beat an explorer to death with a Crabrawler arm he was going to eat, and I could tell you every word of my father's fury that the painting of it is in the Lilycove Museum of Art and not still in our possession, but I never read a picture book until he was gone."
The Pokedex had mentioned that very fact at the Fuchsia tournament. Weird to see it come up again.
"...He'd hate me for donating all of the royal artifacts he guarded with more value than his own life to museums." She said casually.
"I….I can't imagine what that must be like. I mean I was always allowed to pursue my own dreams. Mom could always get someone else to take over the restaurant for her if I made it."
"'Royals have no time for things like commoner books and soup kitchens. Only the finest restaurants are fit for us. The fact they don't consider our arrival an honor is a sign of the terrible times we live in.'" She said in a mocking voice. "'A royal's life is not about what you want, it is about duty and legacy and what you are expected to be'."
He noticed she had not mentioned her mom. He couldn't think of a good reason that was the case, so he kept that question to himself. He did have something he could say here, as he had once said before.
"You know, it isn't quite anything like that, but my grandfather, my mom's dad, did one of those DNA tests once. His name was Ashton Ketchum, and I was named after him. But just Ash."
He had also recently learned from Sabrina that his grandfather wanted him aborted because his grandfather felt like he would burden his mom too much and would keep her from living the life she had wanted. He….he was going to ask his mom about that when they got back to Pallet Town. That was a question to ask about in person, not on the phone.
"He was descended from this guy named Sir Aaron, who was a knight in the service to a country called Rota, and a queen named Rin. So very distantly...he was royalty, and so are my mom and I."
"Really?" Acerola said in surprise.
"...Well like with you, not really. He was pretty far down the family tree, and me and my mom are even more so. A couple dozen people would all have to die at once before it really means anything. My grandfather didn't really care about that, or let it get to his or my mom's head. It was just a trivia thing, and wasn't really relevant except for me who inherited a bit more from Sir Aaron than a very long shot claim to power."
"Still sounds like you guys are more royal than my father ever was. I couldn't tell you if he'd hate you for it or try to schmooze your family for a way back into his 'deserved' status." Acerola sounded like she was sending empathy to his family in that scenario.
"From what my mom said about her dad, he'd have probably punched him." From what he had heard of his grandfather he was a man whose actions were never subtle. If someone was being a butt in the family restaurant, he didn't subtly try to get him to leave or ask them to stop, he told them to stop or made them leave.
"And he'd have deserved it." Acerola said in complete seriousness.
The two were quiet for a minute.
"So Acerola, what do you want to do?"
She looked at him curiously at his question, which started a new topic.
"Like a dream?"
He nodded.
"Yeah, like a dream. You are free of having to be part of your dad's delusions, so you can find one that is all your own. I mean you know my dream by now."
"Win the league, become a Pokemon master…."
"Which are two separate things." He clarified.
"Not sure I know what that last one is supposed to mean….I was going to read a book about it but I ended up here…"
Aka in Kanto, which was its own whole story.
"I'll know I'm a Pokemon Master when I'm one. And some goals are good to be open ended, and some are more clear. Misty wants to catch one of every Water-type and Iris wants to save her family. A clear goal or a vague goal, or dream, either is fine."
"A dream or a goal…" She almost seemed to ask the moon. She looked up at it for a bit, and slumped after a bit.
"I...not sure I really have any idea of what I want to do. Most people who ever met me didn't really see me as me, but the last of a powerless royal family. I never had a chance to really find something that was really my own dream. I liked reading to orphans and making sure Nanu did his job, but those are hobbies, not something I can really call a dream or a goal in life. I mean I want to give any kids I have normal names, but that would be a terrible goal to live for."
"It's not bad to not know what you want to be. I have a friend named Serena who wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She still doesn't, but she is working to figure it out. And looking for a dream and a goal isn't bad or anything. In fact, I'm sure we would love to help you figure out what you want to do."
"It could take a while." Acerola admitted. He smiled.
"You can take as long as you need. Who your family was long ago doesn't need to be all you are. You are more than who your ancestors used to be, just as I am more than who mine are. I am Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, not Sir Aaron many generations removed."
Acerola smiled back, her gray eyes widening a bit as she realized something.
"Oh no I wanted to talk about your issues with your evil dad and the siblings you seem to have everywhere and I got caught up in my own trouble."
"Don't worry about it. The sibling thing is something I've had a bit of time to get used to. I mean it is still weird but after the villainous one I met helped save my life...I'm getting somewhere with that already. As to the evil dad….I mean he's gone and if he stays gone what's really changed? Plus I can talk to anyone about a bad dad. Who else can you talk to about someone with your father's delusion?"
"Yeah, you're right. Not sure Iris would get what I mean much at all."
And the two sat together in a content silence after that. A bit off their chests, though a lot more off Acerola's than his own. But she could say more, and he wasn't exactly still as bothered by things. Sometimes, a reminder that regardless of which father you had, he was still better gone than present could help.
He felt a weight press against his shoulder, and he saw Acerola had fallen asleep, resting against his shoulder. A rustle from some nearby bushes revealed Pikachu, who was grinning. It was nice, he would not lie, to have a nice girl sleeping on your shoulder….but not disturbing the nice girl sleeping against you was a bit of an issue to solve if you yourself wanted to get some sleep at some point.
Pikachu was grinning even more at him, and he only could respond to his buddy's smug look because Acerola seemed to be actually asleep.
"Don't grin like that. I'm sure this is entirely platonic…"
"'Kachu" 'Sure it is…...'
"Maybe she is growing her hair out after I said it looked nice longer and blushing for a completely different reason…."
"Pi?" 'Do you really believe that?'
"..."
'You know she's smiling right?'
Pikachu was grinning like he was Gengar now and he took a look and yes, she was.
"A….platonic smile?"
He had a lot on his plate. His goals of leagues, mastery, finding all his friends (Pokemon and human/bloodliner/whatever) and making sure they were all alright, and saving the world among others. He had endured teaming up with Red, he had been captured twice, and he had kept a memory restored Gengar and Riolu from throwing Parker into the middle of Vermillion Bay as punishment for his crimes.
(Professor Cerise and his wife didn't deserve a dead child.)
Surely if he had gotten through all of those and was making the progress he had, he could juggle this whole….girl thing, too right? Surely some of it wasn't them being interested in him…
Right?
Few end notes.
I always sort of imagined this take on Acerola's dad being a less abusive, but still terrible, Marvolo Gaunt spiced with some Viserys Targaryean, son of Aerys the Mad. With probably less incest from both conceptual sets. (Like Acerola certainly wasn't lusted at like Dany, but maybe some of her cousins had at one point married….)
I had a few ideas for how to expand the idea and while one of my ideas was an AU of the two dating in the Blossomingverse it had two problems. One is the inherent issue that would come from the love interest Acerola would be taking the spot of that could crop up in reviews, and the second is I had a bit of an issue finding an exact plot without playing Chloe off as too antagonistic and unlikeable and going 'He is dating a PRINCESS!?' constantly.
I have no problem depicting Parker as evil in the Blossomingverse, Chloe is a bit more complicated. And yes, this may have something to do with Ash being my favorite character and how both Cerises develop in regards to the guy among other actors.
I also like the idea of having Ash treat his 'Aura Guardian' ancestry with far less reverence and focus than others see it. I like the dynamic, and tried for it with Janine as the 'This is Important' take….but it stuttered as I wrote it as I wasn't sure the direction I wanted to go with it.
This takes place, as a Reset fan might guess, after the Sabrina arc but before they reach Cinnabar or the Seafoam islands. You also might notice no mention of Anabel. I am honestly not sure how to approach her here, as she is both crucial ability wise and in a odd spot for Acerola's inclusion….I kept things generally vague where possible to let me eventually poke at that again if Acerola replaced Anabel instead of Dawn, Anabel coming in later, or if it is four in Kanto, or some other solution.
I had leaned on possibly making things a bit more direct with a romantic conclusion, a flash forward past where Reset is currently at with it quite clear the relationship had evolved. However at the suggestion of Exotos I decided to leave it a bit more vague, but with clear intention of where it is going. Future chapters, if people wish to have them, could probably expand on that like how the many Reset chapters add up to Misty, Iris, Anabel, and Serena's interest in Ash at the present.
This exact characterization of Acerola is specific to the Cherry Bloodlines verse. How Acerola is treated in Reset proper is Viroro's call
