Well once again thank you to all who took the time to review. And as all of you were expecting, here's chapter three.
"Please May anything but that!"
Arriving at the front door Dawn could hear Ash pleading from the other side. Not even bothering to knock she burst into the house, throwing off her shoes at the door, and racing down the small hall into what appeared to be the living room.
"A…" She got out before witnessing something that made her not only speechless but slightly jealous as well.
Lying on his stomach Ash was laughing his head off, begging May to be let free. May on the other hand seemed rather content with the situation, sitting on Ash's knees and holding his wrists to the floor she was preventing him from moving at all. All the while Eevee was using her fluffy tail to tickle his bare feet while Pikachu watched from the sofa. He still looked a little tired but otherwise was enjoying the entertainment that was being provided for him.
"Please May, I surrender I surrender!" Ash continued between laughs while still trying to get away. But with the way that May was positioned he couldn't get the leverage needed to completely get her off.
"No way Ash Ketchum, this is payback for what you did." Looking over her shoulder she smiled as her faithful partner continued the ministrations with her tail to the trainer's feet. "Keep it up Eevee, just a little more and I'll give you some of my special Pokéblock after dinner."
Perking up a bit Eevee gleefully made her way to the other foot before continuing the same procedure.
"Pikachu, buddy, please, do something!" Ash began begging his own partner as seeing that asking May was getting him nowhere fast.
"Pika." The mouse slowly shook its head back and forth before resting it back down on the cushion.
"Traitor."
Dawn was just about to finally step in and pull May off of Ash when she felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. Looking up Dawn saw a cheerful looking young woman in her mid-forties with kind brown eyes and long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. It took her a few seconds but Dawn recognized the person, she had talked to her a few times on the phone and she was in one of the two pictures that Ash always seemed to have on him. The other being a group photo of him and his friends, taken apparently less than a month before she met him.
"Aright May I think that's enough for now," the woman said. "Ash, are you willing to apologize to her yet?"
"Yes, yes! I said that I would minutes ago! She just wouldn't stop," he complained as May finally got off of him and helped him up. "Was that really necessary?"
"Now Ash you should know better than to say anything about a woman's weight," Delia said before heading back into the kitchen.
"But I didn't say anything!" He protested.
"You don't necessarily have to."
Huffing a bit Ash looked up to see Dawn standing there, freezing for a moment as a thought passed through his head the trainer just gave nervous laugh. "How about we just go and eat?"
Watching him start rush into the kitchen Dawn easily figured out what the trainer was thinking. "Ash if you have something to say, say it out loud," she growled as he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Not in a million years. May went easy on me I'd hate to see what Dawn would do to me. Besides she would probably take it completely wrong on purpose."
"Well um, I was just thinking how great your hair looks today Dawn," he got out before quickly disappearing around the corner.
Her original thoughts disappearing in an instant his last words just echoed in her mind, "Wait, did he just say what I think he said? I must be hearing things, cause I thought he just said that he thinks that my hair looks great… That's the first time he's ever said anything like that to me…"
"Looks like he learned his lesson didn't he?" Looking over after hearing no response May looked into her friend's blank stare. "Hello? Dawn?"
Snapping her fingers in front of the blunette's eyes May still got no response and just shrugged it off.
"Right…come on Eevee time to eat. You too Pikachu." With the two Pokémon in tow the coordinator headed off into the kitchen as well.
Snapping out of her trance only by Buneary's struggling to get out of her trainer's grasp and follow Pikachu, Dawn finally realized that she was alone in the living room. "Huh where did, oh." Finally letting her Pokémon go she followed it to go eat as well.
Entering the small room Dawn could see that the others were already sitting at the table waiting for her. Buneary on the other hand rushed over to a spot near the wall where three bowls of food were placed. Seeing that Pikachu and Eevee were already starting to enjoy their meal she had to make sure that her presence was known as well. That Evolution Pokémon wouldn't get all the attention. But of course on the way she made sure to "accidentally" hop on her tail
Letting out a quick yelp the small Pokémon immediately glared at her rival as the rabbit nonchalantly continued onto her food bowl. Letting out a low growl Eevee went back to her food but made sure as to keep one eye on her aggressor at all times. Getting mad like that in front of the object of their affection would only put her at a disadvantage in the long run.
Looking over Pikachu just cocked his head at Eevee's expression before looking at their other eating partner who was happily eating her food, exactly as if nothing had happened. Shrugging the Mouse Pokémon just returned to eating his own meal. Sadly though, he wasn't able to completely enjoy this usually relaxing time, consistently feeling glares erupting from either side of himself he felt nervous just being there. Deciding to try and stay out of whatever fight the two were having the poor Pokémon ate in complete silence without even looking at anything other than what was right in front of him. Yet even still he couldn't shake the feeling that it would be impossible to completely stay out of their battle.
"So Ash honey, what are your plans now that you've completed the Sinnoh league?"
Striking up a conversation Delia wanted to break the odd silence that was present at the table as well. Dawn had been playing with her food for the last few minutes with a small smile on her face while the other two kids were shoveling food down at, what was for them at least, a normal pace.
"Oh yeah I haven't told you yet," Ash replied while looking up from his once again empty plate. "I was thinking of just laying low for a few months and relaxing. After that I'm not really sure. I was hoping to find something in Johto again but otherwise I might get in touch with Scott to see if he has any ideas as to where I should try next and if even that doesn't work then I might just reapply for the Indigo League."
"Well you seem to have most of your bases covered. May, how about you?"
"I'm thinking of heading home for a bit and then possibly heading for Sinnoh. The few stories that I've heard from Ash makes it sound like the perfect place to go next," she answered with a smile before grabbing another couple hot dogs.
"And Dawn?"
"Huh?" Snapping out of her trance again Dawn looked up at the person who said her name. "I'm sorry I was a little distracted, what was the question again?"
"I asked what your plans were for your next journey dear," Mrs. Ketchum stated again, a worried expression on her face.
"Oh right, sorry about that."
"Are you okay Dawn? You haven't even touched your food, do you not like it? I can make you something else if you want."
"Oh no it's delicious thank you, I just have a few things going on in my head." Noticing a long glance from May towards her Dawn continued. "Let's see I might go through either Kanto or Hoenn to participate in their contests but then again seeing as how much fun it was traveling with Ash I might just follow along with him for a little while longer."
Suddenly a loud coughing was heard as everyone looked over to see Ash pounding his chest a bit to clear it before taking a long drink of milk. "Sorry, ate just a tad too fast."
"So none of you have any definite plans then? Well then how about I give you an idea," Delia stated with a big smile on her face. "It just so happens that I recently won a couple of tickets to a resort island for a few days, and seeing as how I have no one to go with I was going to give them to you Ash as a congratulations for winning your first regional tournament."
"Really?" Ash instantly brightened up at the thought of being able to enjoy the sun and surf right after a stressful time at the finals. Dawn and May both brightened up to the idea of going off and sunbathing on the white sand beaches, but it wasn't long til' both the girls found a small problem with the situation.
"But," she continued. "That was before I knew that you were going to bring two guests back with you Ash."
"So wait a minute you mean that I have to choose one of them to come with me while the other stays back?" His face started to turn a very light shade of red at the thought of actually asking her to come with him alone to a resort. He opened his mouth to respond but was instantly curt off by his mom before he even started.
"Close but not quite."
"Huh?"
"I've decided to give the tickets to the girls. You can go along too if you want to but you'll have to pay for it yourself."
"You can't be serious," Ash said flatly.
"Completely," she responded with her ever-present smile. "Consider this as treating them to the vacation as a thank you for being there throughout your journey."
"And if I disagree to your methods?"
"I'm not saying you have to go Honey. This is just as much a thank you from myself for the two girls taking care of you for the last three years."
"Taking care of…what do you mean by that? I was the one looking over them!"
"Sure Honey, now if you want to get there as soon as possible the next ferry leaves tomorrow so you might want to make preparations now."
"Right, preparations." Getting up and bringing his dishes to the sink Ash started to walk out of the kitchen, deep in thought. "Come on Pikachu," he called out before plopping himself down on the couch with his ever-present partner right next to him.
"Oh and Ash? I've asked May to move her things into your room for the night," Delia called out to him as she started to take care of the rest of the dishes.
"What! Why?"
"To be fair I thought that Dawn should get the bigger bed in the guest bedroom because May had it last night. You can sleep down here tonight."
"Great I just got home and I'm already kicked out of my own bed," he mumbled as the two coordinators and their Pokémon came to join him in the living room.
"Sorry Ash," May said as she sat down in one of the chairs. "If you want I can sleep down here tonight and you can get your bedroom. I mean it is yours after all."
"No it's okay May, if anything I should be the one apologizing," Ash told her with a sigh. "You are the guest here so you should be the one getting the bed, not me. Pikachu and I will be fine down here for one night. I'm just a little tired from everything that's happened today. Besides after we get back from the resort I'll have months to spend sleeping in my own bed. One night won't be too bad."
"Thanks Ash."
"You have a nice place here Ash," Dawn spoke up after the other two were done. "It kinda reminds me of my own house back in Sinnoh."
"Thanks Dawn, I kinda forgot that this is the first time that you've been here. If you want I can give you a simple tour of the house. There isn't much here but it has always been enough for just my mom and me."
"I'd love that Ash," she replied with a large smile growing on her face.
"Alright then," he said while getting up and letting Pikachu onto his shoulder. "We can start with the downstairs and work our way up. You okay down here by yourself May or would you like to join us?"
"I'll be fine. In fact I think I'll go take a shower while you are giving her the tour so that I don't have to worry about it tomorrow morning," May said as she got up as well and headed for the stairs. "See you in a bit."
Looking back at Dawn Ash gave off his trademark smirk and offered her his hand. "So shall we start?"
After showing her virtually every room in the house Ash had decided to head to sleep after the long trek that they had just finished up with to get back to Pallet Town. Dawn was sitting in the guest bedroom with her sleeping clothes on thinking about that day and the days to come.
"I just can't figure it all out Buneary," she started, looking over at the Rabbit Pokémon who was sitting on the bed next to her. "There's no doubt that Eevee wants to be with Pikachu and yet May shows virtually no signs of liking Ash beyond normal friendship. With Pokémon supposedly taking on the characteristics of their trainer this is what's confusing me the most. Is May acting like she doesn't care about Ash or is there truly nothing there?"
"Buneary," her Pokémon shrugged. Even though she had her own problems with the Evolution Pokémon, Buneary knew that this was something that was consistently on her trainer's mind and also knew that this would probably affect her own chances of being with Pikachu.
"I just don't know what to think. And even if she does like Ash I don't think that I would be able to bring myself to hating her for it. No matter what she is still my friend and that won't change. Yet still, why does she get to sleep in Ash's room?" She finished up while falling back onto the queen sized bed. "I mean if she doesn't like him like that why her?"
After a few seconds of fuming over that little fact Dawn heard someone knocking at the door.
"Now I wonder who that could be."
"Come in, the doors open," she called out as she sat up.
"I hope I'm not disturbing anything," the person said as she opened the door slowly.
"No it's okay May, did you need something?"
The young coordinator stepped into the room with her hair out of its normal position as it lay down across her shoulders and back, still a little wet from the shower. May walked to the bed and sat down next to Buneary, yet still on the other side of Dawn. She was wearing some flannel pajama pants and an oversized red shirt, obviously getting ready for bed as well. Yet Eevee was noticeably absent from the coordinator's shoulder.
"Well I just wanted to talk to you about something, just the two of us," May began while reaching out to pet Buneary. After a couple questionable seconds Buneary soon relaxed into May's touch as she scratched her between the ears, giving off a soft coo in the process.
"And what would that be?" Dawn asked tentatively.
"I guess it would be best just to get right to the point. You like Ash don't you."
Caught completely off guard by her statement Dawn had to think fast for her reply. "Well of course he's my friend why wouldn't I like him?"
"What is she getting at?" Dawn wondered as she gave unconsciously gave a nervous smile.
"You know that's not what I meant," May said sternly.
"I…well…I mean…you…" Dawn was at a loss for words. She knew the true answer to May's question but was hesitant to tell her. If she lied and May liked Ash then she might lose the battle before it even started. If she told her the truth it could unravel their friendship in an instant. After a big sigh she knew that it was now or never. "Yes," she said simply in a defeated tone.
"I knew it!" May quietly cheered. "And Eevee didn't even want me to ask."
"Huh?"
Dawn was surprised at May's reaction; it was last on the long list of things that she was expecting the brunette to say.
"I had a good assumption that was the case earlier today during the battle, and when you started acting weird after Ash complimented your hair I knew that this was probably the reason."
"So wait a second, you mean that you don't mind?"
"Of course not, why would I mind that two of my close friends are getting together?"
"So you don't like Ash that way?"
"Well to be honest I did have a bit of a crush on him while we were traveling together," she said while looking down at her feet. "But it was nothing more than that, a crush. I had just started my journey and he was the one who would go out of his way to help me in any way that he could, from emotional problems to even things like coordinating which he knew virtually nothing about. How could any girl not fall for a cute boy who would do that for her?"
"But…" Dawn stated, edging her to continue.
"But after we parted and went our separate ways I knew that it wouldn't be anything more than that. I still think about him almost every day for everything that he did for me but there's nothing that I can really do about it now."
Dawn couldn't help but notice the blush that had spread its way across her face as the other coordinator spilled her own secret. Although it felt like a big weight was lifted from her shoulders after hearing May say that she didn't like Ash, there was still one thing that bothered her. "And what about Eevee?"
"What about Eevee?" May asked slightly confused at the apparently random question.
"Well if you haven't noticed she is going after Pikachu quite a bit as of late."
"Oh you mean that? She's been doing that since she was little. It's nothing new. Those two have been close ever since she was born and it's been going on like that ever since, even if Pikachu can get quite scared of her when she gets overly excited. I'm not really sure of the reason for that but he must know something that we don't. Of course it didn't help once Eevee perfected being able to sneak up on him without him even noticing. I'm not sure how she is able to do it but I can think of no other that can do it as easily as she can. Still it made for some truly entertaining times. Team Rocket would have loved to have her on their side," she finished with a giggle.
Finally content with May's answer Dawn started to relax. "So I assume that this wasn't the only thing that you wanted to talk about coming in here this late."
"You would be correct. Tell you what, how about I help you in getting Ash to notice you. We both know how difficult it is for Ash to realize anything that doesn't involve Pokémon."
"Really you would do that? Why?"
"Do you really need to ask? You're my friend Dawn, and friends help each other out. Besides like I said, with him as your target you need all the help you can get." Stifling a large yawn May looked at the clock before getting up off the bed. "Well I think that it's about time to go to sleep. We can talk about this more in the morning if you want. Otherwise the plan will start when we get to the resort."
"Sounds great, but I really don't know how much to thank you for all of this."
"You can start thanking me when you two are together after the vacation. Goodnight Dawn," May said as she walked out of the door, closing it behind herself.
"Goodnight May. And thank you."
Waiting a few moments to make sure that she wasn't still outside the door Dawn gave off a resounding "Yes!" before once again falling back onto the bed letting out content squeals as the different thoughts and fantasies were racing through her head.
"You hear that Buneary? Not only do I not have to worry about May trying to go after Ash as well but she's actually going to help me get together with him! And by the way it sounds you don't have anything to worry about from Eevee as well. Sure enough the Pokémon takes after the trainer. Her little one is just very good friends with Pikachu and probably sees him more like a father figure or even an older brother. Who would have thought that a single word like that would make me feel so uplifted? And it's not as if she lying cause who would actively help someone get together with the person that they love? The next few days are going to be some of the best of my life!" Getting under the covers Dawn let out a large yawn of her own before pulling the blankets around herself. "Goodnight Buneary, see you in the morning."
While the Pokémon was no doubt happy for her trainer she didn't have the heart to try and tell her that at least part of that little rant wasn't correct. Looking back to the door Buneary knew that there was some misinformation mixed in with the truth of what was said. The Normal-type didn't think that May was lying about anything she said but there was one thing that Buneary knew for a fact, while love and friendship may be universal ideas between humans and Pokémon the way that each expresses them are very different. And the way that Eevee was acting towards Pikachu didn't exactly say "just best friends".
May strode into her room with a big smile on her face as she sat down on Ash's bed, Eevee contently curled up on a spot near her pillow. On somewhat of an impulse she grabbed her pack and looked through it for only a second before finding what she wanted. Smiling at the object May looked over at her Pokémon.
"I told you Eevee, Dawn did like Ash. And now that I know that's a fact I can start trying to get those two together."
Looking up from her spot Eevee gazed at her trainer with a somewhat sad look on her face, almost as if she was disappointed with her. From that one look May knew exactly what her Pokémon was thinking, she was the first one that May confided that secret with and until only a few moments ago the only one.
"Oh come on Eevee we both know that my crush on Ash was nothing more than that. Ash has spent the last year-and-a-half away from us and has moved on with his life as well. He never even once gave me the slightest idea that he thought of me as more than a friend the entire time we were together. Even with as dense as he is one would think he would have let part of it slip at some point, I mean he is a boy after all. Besides with that crush gone I can at least let those two find happiness. There're plenty more boys out there that I will probably fall for in the years to come." Giving a half-hearted smile she noticed something that was kinda off from her partner's actions. "Hey Eevee is there a reason you like that spot so much? Cause ever since I started my shower you haven't moved ever once you first made your way to the bed."
"Vee," the little Pokémon nodded while putting her head back down to the sheets and inhaling deeply though her nose, slowly letting it out as the familiar scent relaxed every one of her muscles. It was a relaxing and yet soothing scent that she enjoyed almost as much as her own trainer's scent. This definitely was where the scent was the strongest and she could only assume that this was the spot that he slept when they were at home.
"Or you can just keep it to yourself I guess." Switching off the lights May made her way back into the bed and crawled underneath the sheets. "The next few days will be busy with us trying to get those two together and everything so we need our rest. Goodnight Eevee, sweet dreams"
As she said this May's own nose caught a specific scent on the pillow. She found that that smell always brought her back to a happy mood, and this time it also brought back vivid memories of the past. As she recalled each memory the brunette could feel her eyes starting to well up as the first of many tears started to flow.
"Why am I crying?" She thought as the first few tears were wiped away by the sleeve of her shirt. "I'm not sad at all right now; in fact if anything I should be happy, happy to see that Ash and Dawn are going to be getting together and that I am able to help them achieve it. So why?"
As the young girl eventually fell asleep through the tears her hand relaxed, letting the item held between her fingers to fall out onto the floor; a soft ringing noise sounding out as it hit. Though worn through use the object still shown in the dim moonlight, its golden surface well polished while the white and pink accents displayed the love and care she still held for it.
Ah the start of the true plot. Well this one was a little longer than I normally like but I hope you enjoyed it. Please review and the next chapter should be up at its normal time.