Author's Notes: You voted, I listened. Here's chapter two.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Indeed his subconscious mind had punished him, and had Ash been the masochistic type he'd have seriously been taking note at just how creative his mind was at self-torture. He'd dreamed that he had arrived home once more, for some reason he'd just opened the front door. He'd found his mother at the kitchen table, doing something he could not remember but he could remember what happened next. He'd tried to get her attention, only to be asked 'who are you?'. He'd said he was her son but she'd shook her head. "No, no. My son's a good boy."

Just then he'd suddenly turned around to see a faceless figure appear, and somehow knew that this was the son she had spoken of. His dream had changed, he'd found himself in the river that he had fallen into on the day he'd started his journey. He'd been drowning, desperately reaching above the water for escape. Misty was again on a rock overlooking the river, but she had no fishing rod this time, and she was not alone. She had Brock were watching, watching him drown. He'd reached up for them, crying out for help. They'd done nothing, and when his screaming grew louder they'd only laughed.

He found himself in front of Dawn and May, but he'd said nothing to him, nor they to him. They'd simply walked away from him. One of them spoke, but he could not tell who it was. Perhaps this was his minds' way of showing they both thought the same thing. "To think I once looked up to him." The other responded with a sympathetic tone. "I know, I did to. Who'd look up to someone like him?" He'd tried speaking, but nothing came out. Somehow he'd lost all ability to speak. They'd walked on to join Max, who gave him a look of hatred before walking off with them. The scene eventually changed once more, and he'd found himself in a familiar looking arena, looking across at his Sinnoh Rival, Paul.

"You're no better than me."

"That's not true! I've never hurt my Pokémon!"

"No." He laughed. "You just hurt your friends." Paul had laughed, and laughed, every expression of joy at his anguish striking at him with a fury. He'd been ready to scream at Paul to shut up, when somehow he became aware of the crowd in the stadium. Everywhere he turned he saw somebody he'd once known, and no matter what he looked they'd looked at him with hostile intent. He'd circled around, trying to find something, someone who wasn't against him. He'd just kept turning, and turning, and soon the stadium and Paul were gone, everything was gone, he'd just been standing, turning, trying to find something but finding no-one.

Then he suddenly felt pain. Not emotional pain, no. Pain like something was trying to pound into his skull.

He'd woken up even before opening his eyes, becoming aware of a sound of flapping wings departing his room. He heard the sounds of Pidgys outside his house, cawing softly as they flew by.

So why did every caw sound like an explosion? He opened his eyes to see Pikachu grinning at him.

"Not a word. Or it's-uhhh." Ash moved his hands to his throbbing temples, trying to calm the raging headache he'd found himself with.

Pikachu removed his grin, deciding not to make fun of his best friend's problem. "Ka chu, pi?" That bad, huh?

"Feels like my head's spent an hour as a Machamp's punching bag. So yeah that bad." "So this is what a hangover is." He got up, head pounding harder than a Belly Drum and quickly picked up and dumped the now empty offending bottle in the trash. "I'm never drinking again, and if I change my mind, shock me. You'll be doing me a favour."

"Chu chu." Aye aye.

Ash moved, making his way out of the room and into the hall, quickly locating the bathroom and entering. He took a look at himself in the mirror. A little worse for wear, but nothing too horrifying. He shook his head, but quickly regretted the action. "Is Mom around?" He started rubbing sleep out his eyes with his left hand.

Pikachu shook his head. "Ka, pikachi pi, pikachu pi kachipi..." No, she went out, shopping she said but... Pikachu prepared for the worst. "Pika chu pi pika chu pikachu pika." She found you this morning, and probably saw the bottle.

Ash stopped everything, quickly leaning his face on the mirror in front of him, he took a moment to process what that must have looked like. "Damn. And to think I got that to celebrate."

Pikachu moved into 'damage control' mode."Pika chu pikachu pi, pika chupi pi chu pika. Pikachu pika pi chu pika pi kachu pi chu pikachu pika pi." Well I don't think you need to explain, I don't think she'll ask details. You should let her know that's the last you're drinking though. Ash nodded against the glass.

Pikachu watched his friend intently, who was still using his left hand in an attempt to make his face more presentable, or at least less hungover. Pikachu moved his eyes to Ash's right hand, and grinned.

"Chu pika." Call her.

"Who?"

"Pikachu-Pi. Pi chu pika pi." Misty. You miss her most.

"I miss them all, Pikachu."

"Chu, pi pikachupi chu. Pikachu pika pikachu." Yeah, but Misty most. Don't bother lying. Pikachu suddenly jumped down to the bathroom floor, off, most likely to continue his new diet of nothing but ketchup. Ash would later have to make note of supplying Pikachu with greater amounts of that certain food dressing in coming days, unless he could come up with a way to wean the little rodent off the stuff. The odds of that were slimmer than...Ash was still too hungover at that point to think of a good example.

Whether it was by mistake or design, Pikachu's tail had lightly tapped Ash's right hand as he jumped down, bringing attention to what he was still holding.

Another surge of guilt, but Ash still found himself looking intently at his friend's parting gift. Suddenly he wanted to punch himself (but his headache quickly silenced that idea), he'd let her leave so easily before he'd gone to Hoenn. What had he been thinking? He should have begged her not to leave, begged her to stay, or at least made damn sure how much she meant she had meant to him, but he'd never said how much their time together had meant. He'd never said it to Brock either, but Misty...somehow not saying what he should have to her just him hurt more. He turned from it, forcing himself to drop the topic and get on with his day, but not before returning his room, placing the Handkerchief carefully inside his bag once more.

Pikachu had been watching, smiling to himself. "Wonder if he'll finally figure it out." His smile grew. "I hope so. Arceus knows he needs her. I just hope she needs him too."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Exactly twenty-four hours had passed since Ash had showed up at the Cerulean City gym, only to leave, and for the second day in a row Misty was in the same location, only this time she was waiting. She'd been waiting for ten whole minutes to see if Ash would show up again. She'd wait ten more.

She'd wait in vain.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A while later Pikachu and Ash found themselves in the kitchen, Ash drinking Coffee for the first time in his hyperactive life and Pikachu working through another bottle of ketchup. Curious, Ash asked; "What number are you up to now?"

Pikachu finished a mouthful and kicked his lips "Pika chupi." Bottle eleven. Pikachu belched. "Pika pi chu." That's the stuff.

"You'll puke the rate you're going."

"Kachu pika." Beats drinking.

With a nod Ash let silence reign again, taking another sip of coffee. He briefly wondered if people only found themselves depressed when they drunk, along with a hangover in the morning why in the hell did they do it? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, and his mother entering the kitchen.

She'd hidden it rather well, but Ash could tell right away she'd been crying, likely having gone out to someone else for some much needed sympathy. That was two strikes against him, someone had taken what should have been his role, and he'd been the problem! Now he had a guess as to why people kept drinking, maybe to them it was better than trying to fix whatever they'd screwed to hell. Ash was not that much of a coward, and he doubted he could stand Pikachu shocking him awake every morning on top of the hangover, he knew his friend would start doing it eventually, even if he hadn't already made him promise to shock him.

Delia waited a few seconds before speaking, trying to create a believable expression of happiness, she pulled off the face well, but her voice could not fully mask the weight she'd been burdened with. "Finally up, huh?"

He gave her one of his signature grins, well as best as he could currently pull off. "Yeah, have been for a little while. I swear to Arceus I am never drinking again."

Delia seemed to get the hidden message, and gave him a genuine smile. "How did you get that bottle anyway?"

"Came across a town in Unova with a lower drinking age." Ash shrugged. "People tend to drink to celebrate so I got it for after the championship."

Delia knew perfectly that Ash had done no celebrating last night. With the state he'd found him and his room in she could have made a good guess at what he'd been doing. She wondered when and if he was going to ask about his 'first' outfit. Half-hoping he would, then she could direct him right where he needed to go. Half-hoping he wouldn't, because she wasn't sure he'd go. She watched her son take another sip before he spoke again.

"So how have things been here?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Another half an hour of talk about pretty much everything met an interesting kind of awkwardness just before the end. Ash was trying to figure out if he'd said anything wrong when all of a sudden the front door bell rung, announcing the coming of Professor Oak, Gary and Tracey. Ash had to take a moment to realize they hadn't shown up randomly, they'd been asked to show up, and he had a feeling why that was. "I'm really never drinking again!"

Ash had managed to sneak out of the Kitchen and retreat upstairs without being detected, with some effort. He loved his Mom, he really did, but this was a real pain in the ass move. Though, he'd thought with a frown. "She had good reason." He wanted to change things, he did, but he needed to prepare himself first. Facing people you'd basically avoided for so long took some serious backbone, backbone Ash was currently in low supply of. His bedroom was neither barricaded nor hidden, and ten minutes after his retreat someone had made their way to it and opened the door.

It was Gary. "Ashy-boy. Long time no see."

"Oh, hi Gary."

It as when that Ash's isolation from people finally hit him. Sure, he'd never been particular close to Gary, or even liked him that much, but he'd at least known how to talk to him. Now, he had no idea what to say, or how do say it if he had. However, Gary had a topic, and was bold (or tactless) enough to just dive right into it.

"I never told gramps, or any of your friends, but I told your Mom I ran into you."

"Oh. You did...umm, thanks."

"Oh you're welcome." Gary's tone changed, and Ash knew that tone of so well..."You know...I'd have thought you'd have kept in contact with her..."

Ash's eye twitched, but he held his temper in check. "You got something to say to me, Gary?"

"Yeah. You're a real piece of shit. I know what that dream meant to you, but not contacting your own family. You're all she's got and you still abandoned her!"

Ashs fists suddenly clenched as he heard his own blood pumping."Gary...shut up."

"No! I'm not done! You go off, ditching friends left and right, even your Mom! All this for a damn title. And now you come back expecting to be treated like a some kind of royalty. You selfish bas-"

Gary's words had been knocked out of him, literally, as Ash's fist has rammed itself into his stomach. The unsuspecting researcher collapsed to his knees from the strong blow. His own quick breathing match by Ash's, and the temper he was fighting to keep down.

"I deserve a lot worse than anything you got for me, but I wont be taking anything from you. You don't have a right to be angry with me. You wanna call me a bastard? Go ahead, I deserve it, and worse, but I ain't letting you preach to me! We've never been close! Now get out of my room! Actually, get the hell out of this house!"

He ripped open his room door, to hell with sitting upstairs feeling sorry for himself, it was time to take a step in the right direction. He left Gary on his own, but he'd overheard Gary leaving not long after, feeding a fake excuse to his Grandfather. It looked like one person he was never going to patch things up with was Gary. He couldn't exactly feel sorry for that. While said in anger, his words were true. They had neither been really been friends, not like the ones Ash wished to make amends to. Gary had always been just an obstacle, a marker of which to define himself against, but only now he realized it had been time to put an end to his ties with the young researcher long ago. Some people just had to avoid one another outright, for the better of both. This was such a time.

Ash just hoped no other reunion went down that slope.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ring ring ring, phone call, phone call. Ring ring ring, ring ring ring, phone call, pho-"

Brock moved from the table he had been looking over some papers on, answering to find he had received a call from. "Misty, hey."

"Hi Brock. I'm not interrupting something am I?"

"Nothing really important. To what do I owe the pleasure? Dewgong's tail acting up?"

Misty shook her head. "Dewgong's fine, thanks again for treating him."

"Thanks for letting me. I got extra credit for that." Misty laughed. While it had been a long time since either of them had gone on an adventure, they still managed to find ways to laugh about the randomness of life. You'd didn't need to walk across countries to find adventures. Sometimes those adventures found you, even if they'd wandered impossible lengths to find you. "So what did you call for?" He watched his friend take a long, deep breath, this was not going to be good, he assumed. He assumed right, because the next word to come out of Misty's mouth changed the atmosphere of the conversation entirely.

"Ash."

Even more than a year after Ash had faded from their lives, he still found a way to keep a hold on the both of them. They both remembered back when the inevitable had truly bore its face, Brock's last meeting with Ash had been the final warning sign. He remembered that night, and the one he'd spent on the phone with Misty when he'd finally gotten home. For different reasons, the atmosphere of the conversation had been utterly destroyed. Ash had exploded at him, Misty had dissolved into a puddle of tears, and though he had hid it well, he'd cried some tears of his own too. That had been the day that they had silently agreed; Ash would never be spoken of again. They had kept that agreement well, even at first, which had been the hardest. Reminiscing about their adventures had eventually joined Ash in the 'off limits' category, a massive portion of their lives, perhaps the single most important of it had been sealed off ever since. If Misty was bringing him up, then something big had to have happened.

"I see."

"Brock. I know we don't talk about him anymore, but this is important. He's back."

"By 'back' you mean...?"

"In Kanto, yeah. He...stopped by my Gym the day before yesterday..."

That he would never have expected. "And?"

Misty shrugged. "Nothing. He just stood outside for a minute and walked off. He didn't notice me, or that I was watching."

It took Brock a moment to see what Misty wasn't saying, or to be more accurate what she wasn't asking. The question was why. Why was it that he'd shown up at her doorstep at all? By now, a lot of time had passed since the last time Brock had seen Ash, but the memory of their last encounter was as fresh as the day it had been created.

"Misty." Brock sighed. "Misty...when we...last talked. He told me..." He took a breath. "He told me if he wanted to accomplish his dream, it had to come first, above everything else. That meant everything else Misty. Above his friends, his family." He took a second to prepare himself, and Misty for what he was about to say. "Even you." He saw her eyes flash with pain. "I'm sorry, Misty. But I can't sit by with my mouth shut. I know how you feel, from day one I was expecting you guys to get together, but the Ash we knew is gone. And I don't think he'll be coming back, even if he's finally reached his dream. I don't know what he's doing now, but we should just leave him be. I know it's hard, but isn't it about time you at least tried to find-"

He'd stopped himself, silently cursing Misty for breaking the rule, even for this. He saw it in her eyes before she'd even spoke. This had been far from the first time he'd tried to do what a far younger self would never have done, to get Misty to move on from Ash, but this was the first time he'd forgone the art of being subliminal about it. Just as he feared, Misty suddenly averted her gaze before speaking, her voice cracking as she spoke.

"Sorry Brock, I gotta go."

He didn't get a chance to say goodbye, but if he were honest he was not sure he wanted to. He could make a damn well educated guess at what Misty was going to do now, and it frustrated the hell out of him. Both in at Misty for not letting go, and at Ash for letting her go. It'd been cute at first but now Ash's dense nature was really starting to become a bother. Brock returned to the table on which he had been drinking tea and going over a new medical assignment for his class. They had been instructed to try and create a new medical combination of berries and herbs as a treatment for skin wounds. Brock had come up with two, and was currently in the middle of writing how one of his combinations could be used to combat some effects of burning as well-

Brock's fist suddenly slammed into the table. He'd spent more time with Ash than anyone who had ever been in Ash's circle of friends, more so even than Misty. He'd always known his friend had a one-track mind when it came to his dream, but never, never would he have guessed this. He, like Misty, knew just exactly how far Ash had gone, how much he'd thrown away in his pursuit. Other former friends of the new Grandmaster were under the blissful assumption that at the very least, Ash had contacting his own Mother consistently. Misty had informed him otherwise. Brock had gone out to meet Ash just because of that, because to Brock, almost nothing was more important than family. Ash's reaction had knocked his former friend's view in his eyes through the floor. He knew that if he'd spread the word, the rest of Ash's former circle of friends would resent him far, far more than they did right now, but what would have been the point?

"Ash you idiot. Do you think for anyone other than yourself any more?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as she'd hung up Misty retreated to her bedroom, by some miracle avoiding her sisters in the process. She slumped on her bed without much of a sound. She merely lay there, absent-mindedly playing with Ash's old coat in her hands as she tried to think, her vision clouded by tears.

It had been an unspoken agreement she had never enjoyed, but accepted. Misty had known for some time that Brock thought it would best for her to move on, but this had been the first time he'd been so direct about it. She knew Brock meant well, and very likely he was right. Aside from his success rate with women Brock was a wise and perceptive man, and she guessed that Brock already knew she'd been doing this right now. Though she had never gotten over her feelings for Ash, she was mostly fine before he'd shown up again. She was at a very comfortable place in her life, but not for the first time her childhood friend had knocked her world out of all order.

She still missed him, but the thought of him...she closed her eyes, shifting some particular large tears. She knew from a much younger age than now that she'd fallen for her friend, and fallen hard, but she could never have seen this coming. Never would she have thought Ash could have such a hold on her. Ultimately she didn't know if she wanted Ash to contact her or not, and she didn't think she'd know until she somehow, by a series of events she lacked the imagination to picture, talked to him once more. "That wont happen." The universe was telling her, screaming at her to simply give up. All her closest friends, family, everyone except Delia had told her to give up, but Delia...had Ash even contacted her she wondered.

She hoped that someone along the line, Brock had been wrong. Delia deserved to see and hear from Ash more than anyone, if he hadn't contacted his Mom by now then Brock was absolutely right. But if he had...

She'd call tomorrow.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ash lay out in the field, very close to his house, staring up at the nights sky as he reflected on his day, and the days to come.

Patching things up with Tracey had been...interesting. It was strange, in how little hostility there had been. After Tracey had left Ash and co they hadn't exactly talked much, though they had still considered one another friends, but it had been two years. Tracey's efforts had not been so much on Ash and himself, but on talking about Ash and everyone else he had left behind. He had not so subtly probed Ash for his feelings, and intentions there. Ash guessed the artist had left satisfied, he sure seemed happy to see Ash again, and was kind giving a sad truth, Ash was on his own. Not because Tracey wouldn't do anything, it's just he really couldn't. People had to make up their own minds. He'd said he would put in a good word if he was asked though, which Ash had thanked him for. Tracey had asked if he could meet and sketch Ash's current team sometime, a drawing of the world's strongest Pokémon team would be a priceless piece of art, Ash smiled and agreed, asking if Tracey wanted himself to show up with them, have it be a full set. "Why not?" Had been his answer. They'd parted smiling.

One friend had been made amends to, Ash felt better than, he suddenly realized, felt in over a year. He'd joked to Pikachu he should try celebrating again, and cursed under his breath when his mother picked that exact moment to walk into the kitchen.

If he'd paid attention that day he'd have figured out where exactly Pikachu had picked up his more colorful language from.

Ash gazed intently at the sky, a million lights shinning down upon him. It was quite a night, with the stars providing enough light on their own to see by. He watched as high above a couple of Butterfree danced in the light, reminding him of his own former Butterfree. He had wondered exactly where his first caught Pokémon had gone to, but not in a very long time. He wondered where exactly he and his mate had gotten to. Were they in even in Kanto now? They'd had a long time to migrate to just about anywhere. Soon the Butterfree passed, and Ash was left with his problem.

He wanted to reach out to his friends again, but how? Misty was just the biggest error he had to repair, but she was far from the only one. He wondered if Brock was perhaps going to be even harder. He'd never been so angry, or seen Brock that angry in their last meeting. He thought now he finally understood why he had been so angry. He knew Brock was right, somehow, even then. He'd just been to narrow-mindedly stubborn to admit it. Now, now well over a year had passed since then. He'd gone long past the traditional making-up point for any spat he'd had with a friend on his travels. One would think, that with his new found fame, Ash could have simply found new friends. With only a mention of such a desire he'd have Pallet Town overrun with people looking to be a friend to the Grandmaster, but alas one simple fact made that impossible.

He had friends, and he missed them.

"So what do I do?"

"Ash! Dinner's ready!"

Ash smiled. "I'll worry about this later." He got up. Damn had he missed good home cooked meals.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter End

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's notes: Normally I have so many author's notes to give. But I'll give a typical one. If you like the bok so far, review/spread the word. I like knowing my work is being read/liked, what author doesn't?

Think of it this way: More appreciation for my work = Faster work rate.

Seriously, you don't want the same update rate as my (current) main project. Thankfully this is proving far, far easier to write.

Next Chapter!: Well, actually I haven't planned that far ahead yet...