Author's Comments: short break chapter before I start the Quarter final Battles, which will be 2v2 no substitutions, there will be two matches per chapter unless the chapters become too long, then it will be one match per chap and the Quarter arc will be 8 chapters long.

Ash exited the bathroom, his hands still damp, and started back towards his table, where his friends and mother were waiting for him. After the final match, when they were all free to leave, the group decided to head out to another restaurant that Lana had been dying to go too, and since nobody wanted to cook, they all caved pretty easily, and as Ash would be having dinner with his fellow champions the next few nights as they went over plans and scheduling so they decided a nice night at a restaurant sounded pretty good. The only downside was that the restaurant was one of the few that required Pokemon to stay inside their Pokeballs the entire time, for good reason because the decorations in the restaurant were rather expensive and their had apparently been a few incidents, meaning Raichu was taken to the cabin to eat with the other Pokemon, which the Electric/Psychic type didn't seem to mind too much.

"Hello Ash." A deep, familiar voice startled the raven haired man from his thoughts, making him look up. A heavy feeling coiled in his stomach as he came to recognise Brock's tan skin, spiky brown hair, and squinted eyes.

Squaring his shoulders, Ash shoved his hands into his pockets, fiddling with Espeon's Pokeball to soothe his nerves. "Brock." Ash cleared his throat to hide the uneasy squeak that took his tone. "How are you?" He asked, peering around in search of the others.

Brock seemed to catch his unease and waved his hands dismissively. "They don't know you're here, I only came with Cilan, who knows the head chef. Everyone else is at the hotel." He explained. Ash simply nodded in uneasy understanding, sighing heavily. "Its good to see you." Brock offered a calm smile.

Anger flared in Ash's chest, and his clenched his fists. "I'm sure it is." He bit out, a rough growl in his throat, and Brock looked at him with a level of surprise. Sigh to calm himself, though it did little to truly simmer his nerves, and ran a hand down his face. "Look, what do you want?"

The older man seemed to deflate ever so slightly. "Nothing, I just wanted to know how you've been. I haven't seen you in a long time." He said sincerely.

Ash's head snapped up and he glared in disbelief. "Oh I've been good, perfect actually." His words were rushed, and tight with emotion. "I'm uh really happy, yaknow. Alola is great, I have amazing friends, my Pokemon really love it there, I'm actually getting married in a few months, so yeah I'm happy."

"Oh, I'm glad-"

Ash scoffed. "Are you?"

"Yes." Brock heaved a sigh from his nose and rubbed his face in frustration. "I'm glad you're happy, its all I've ever wanted for you Ash."

A breathy sob like laugh escaped Ash's throat. "Could have fooled me." As if it never happened, a huge Surf of exhaustion hit Ash, draining the anger from his body and replacing it with sorrowful apathy. "I don't get it. Brock you were like my brother, and-and then you tell me to give up on my dream, and now you're saying you only wanted me happy? How does that make sense?! I wanted you to be happy, and you know what I did? I stood by your side and tried to help you reach your dream, even when I didn't understand. I just, was something lost in translation? Because I would love to understand this whole mess."

"I wanted you to grow up." Brock looked away from him, unable to look him in the face any longer. "I thought when you went to Unova on your own, you would finally grow up, but then you met Cilan and you didn't grow up at all. And that is my fault, I held your hand too much on our journeys together, and then Cilan took up the mantle. I thought if you settled down somehow, gave up on your dream and found something new, that you would finally grow up."

Ash shook his head with a snort. "You want to know why I didn't grow up?" He said lowly, before shoving Brock away from him. "Because I was sixteen years old. I was ten when I met you, and fifteen when I went to Unova. When you guys said all that stuff I was only sixteen, May is the same age as me, Iris is the same age as me, and you don't think they should grow up?" Ash gripped Brock's shirt tightly, bringing him down a bit so they would be eye to eye. "What you did didn't make me 'grow up', it traumatized me. I'm still in therapy because the people who I thought were my friends turned their backs on me. Sometimes I still think everyone is going to turn their backs on me if I lose a single battle." He let go and shoved Brock out of his way. "I grew up because the people in my life helped me, if that's your idea on how to help someone grow up, then I'm glad we aren't friends anymore."

Ash turned his back on the man he once saw as his closest friend and older brother, and walked away, leaving the man to slide down the wall in self pity.

He made his way back to his table, where the group was childishly laughing at Lana, who looked a bit green as they urged her on to eat some kind of dessert they ordered. Kaiwe looked up and grinned at him, making Ash smile back as he took his seat, stress slowly leaving his body.

"What are you guys doing?" He snickered.

"Ash they're picking on me~" Lana whined good naturedly, holding the spoon away from her.

"Lana ordered something called…" Lily peered at her dessert menu again. "Spotted Dick, and is now refusing to eat it."

Ash snorted as he read the ingredients. "It's just steamed pudding, its a dish from Galar."

"Oh yeah?" Gladion smirked a bit. "You try it then."

Sighing playfully through his nose, Ash reached across with his spoon and took a spoonful before shoving it into his mouth. It had a baked cheesecake like texture, with the occasional squishy texture of baked raisin. "Its just flour, cream, and raisins."

Lana shook her head. "You're crazy." She declared, pushing the plate away from herself with dramatic flair, causing the table to break out into laughter once again.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Comments: sorry for the onslaught of unneeded emotion i actually had a huge blow out with a friend before i wrote this and it played a huge role in how this chapter was written