Chapter 8

*Pokémon Centre*

Brock led Ash outside the room and all the way down the hall, before stopping. He looked to make sure no one is around, as Ash observed him skeptically.

"Brock? What are we doing here?"

"Oh, hmm." Brock cleared his throat, and began his talk, "Ash, about your aura…"

Ash sighed. He turned and lean on the railing; not wanting to look at Brock. It didn't surprise him that everyone else would ask about it. But right now he felt tired just talking about it. "I know," he had to reply; "I've never done anything with it before except today. Until now I really don't know anything."

"That's fine. Don't worry, you have all of us. We'll support ya. And you see, if you are feeling strange or something, you can talk to me now. I'm all ears."

"Thanks Brock. But I really don't want to even think about it. Sorry…"

"It's okay. No need to worry!"

"Wow, now you uses Dawn's phrase too huh?"

"Haha, yeah it's pretty catchy."

Both boys laughed as they re-called on their journey in Sinnoh with Dawn. The times they ate Brock's food, laughed and played together, Ash's battles and Dawn's contests. They all agreed that it was fun and all throughout despite certain low times.

"I miss Dawn. Wonder how she's doing now?" Ash mentioned, while watching the pokémons downstairs helping Nurse Joy.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. After all you've helped her all you could last time. She definitely remembers that." Brock said, before realizing his opportunity. He looked around again and then turned to Ash, "Hey Ash… you wanna talk about May?"

"Huh? What about her?" Ash replied, apparently not noticing anything. But Brock didn't answer, and it was a few more second till Ash gulped and blushed.

"Why do you keep mentioning about her? And in that way…"

"Haha! Relax! I'm not teasing you or anything! What I meant was, you can always ask me if you have doubts."

"Oh… I…" Ash turned to look for Pikachu, just to realize he isn't with them. 'Great, my only hope…'

"Looking for Pikachu? Well it's alright. He told us-… told ME, that you do like May. But you're just unsure, right?"

"…Maybe?"

"Jeez, this is serious, Ash! Err, I mean, it's pretty important-"

"How? Why is it so important?" Ash cut off Brock on purpose. He didn't understand. He didn't know why everyone seemed so anxious to know about his feelings for May. 'In fact, it's starting to get annoying…'

"Because…" Brock controlled his urge to reveal May's feelings, and said, "Well, it's better not to hold on to this kind of feelings for long. It wouldn't be good for you." Brock said, though now he hesitated if it was a right way to explain it. But then he reconfirmed himself that it was true in a way too.

"Really?" clearly Ash was too dense to notice anything. However he took the chance to end the conversation, "Come on. Let's go help Nurse Joy!"

"…Oh well, one step at a time…" Brock reminded himself to take it slowly, since it is Ash whom he's dealing with.

*At a certain corner*

"Eeks! Look at all the pokémons! They're walking about so freely, as if they're free for us to catch!"

Jessie's eyes glittered as she said, "You're right James! Come on let's start nowwwwOWWWWW!"

"STOP! We've changed out status, guys! We aren't here to capture pokémons!" Meowth said, pulling the other two back by their hair.

"Meowth's got a point…" James said, rubbing his head.

"OH YEAH! Doesn't mean you can go around pulling my PRECIOUS HAIR! You'll pay for this!" a witch-looking Jessie started chasing the panic-stricken Meowth around the pokémon center.

"Hey, those people look familiar…" Max said. He was wiping his glasses with his shirt; hence he couldn't see anything properly. But May recognized them immediately.

"Team Rocket! You guys again!"

Jessie and Meowth stopped running upon being spotted. James joined up behind as the trio began:

"Prepare for trouble!"

"Or make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation…" everyone turned to Ash, who said the line while looking at Team Rocket with a bored expression.

"Hey that's my line!" Jessie said

"Yeah, you twerps are supposed to say 'Team Rocket' after we finish!" James chirped in, before realizing what he was saying.

"That is part of it now?" Meowth asked.

"HEY! Whatever! Just get lost, will you?" Ash exclaimed. He didn't think it is worth the effort to battle Team Rocket, though he knew clearly he would win.

"Well HEY! We aren't here to let you shout at!"

"Yeah! And we aren't going to steal anything! We're just stalkers for now!" James burst out, but realizing his mistake again.

"James, will you shut up!" Meowth said, covering James' mouth with his paws. Jessie facepalmed at the two of them.

"Wait, what do you mean that you're just stalkers for now? Why are you stalking us then?" Brock asked. He smelled something fishy going on when James announced that they won't steal pokémons.

"Oh since James has revealed it, I'll explain it professionally. We've have been promoted~!" said Jessie in a singing tone.

"Oh we are?"

"Yes Meowth, can't you see it? Our boss finally assigned us a proper mission, of course we're promoted!"

"You guys sure are naïve…" May said boringly

"Excuse me, girl twerp?"

"Hey! The name's May! Long purple hair freak!" May said. Ash couldn't help but started laughing at her comment.

"WHAT! HOW DARE YOU!" Jessie screamed. Her purple hair flew up as 'fire' surrounded her; her eyes turned evil red. "YOU RED-DRESSED FREAK!"

"WHAT WAS THAT?" May's face and hair turned red, exactly the same color as her clothes.

The two glared at each other angrily, as if anytime they will pounce forward and attack. Meanwhile the guys stood at a corner watching the scene.

"What… what is this? Cat-fight?" James suggested.

"Well it hasn't started yet, but I'm sure it'll be one." Brock replied.

"Are you actually enjoying it?" Meowth looked at Brock with disbelief.

"Well, either way my mom said before, never interfere whenever there's girls fighting." Ash said

"Wow, you actually knew something about girls?" Max teased Ash, to which the latter glared at him for a while, before looking back at the two 'fired-up' girls.