Okay, that's all for now. But, in good news, we are almost caught up to the original site now, which is on 26 as of today.

Also, one of the best mini-arc of the entire story(in my opinion) goes up next time, it's 3 chapters. So I guess you have that to look forward to.

Over the next couple of days, Ash and May didn't get much of a chance to spend time together, due partly to May's condition, but also because of Max and Brock's newfound suspicions. May ended up spending most of her time sleeping anyway, her body still fighting to recover from the effects of the poison.

Thus, Ash, Brock, and Max were left with little to do while she remained in the hospital. Generally, besides the time they spent watching after her, Brock and Max would retreat to the beach, and Ash would divide his time between staying with them and training with his Pokemon.

However, the night of the second day of this routine, Pikachu decided to confront his human friend. Once they were all back at their room at the Pokemon Center for the night, and Brock and Max were distracted with other things, Pikachu jumped down off of his shoulder as he was heading over to his bed.

"Huh? What's the matter, buddy?"

"Pika, pika." Pikachu began, motioning for Ash to bend down, so that Brock and Max didn't have to hear.

Ash did as was asked, squatting down to Pikachu's level and lowering his voice before he continued. "What's up?"

"Pika, pika, pi-ka-chu." Pikachu started, performing a series of gestures that indicated he was talking about May.

"May? What about her?" Ash asked, not quite what he had expected to talk about.

"Piika..." Pikachu continued slowly. "Pika, pikachu." It brought both of its hands together and smiled in imitation.

"Huh - ?" Ash replied, vaguely beginning to get a sense of what Pikachu was asking.

"Piiika." Pikachu finished, pointing to Ash before making a 'kissy face' at him.

"Wh-what? Come on, buddy, not that again!" Ash shot back defensively, remembering the last time that Pikachu had questioned him about having feelings for May. "I already told you, didn't I? We're...just friends."

"Pika...?"

"Y-yeah, I'm sure. Can you stop asking me already?" Ash assured him with a false sense of confidence in his voice.

"...Pika..." Pikachu said finally in defeat, sighing.

The following morning, May was cleared to leave the hospital, but was advised to still play it safe for the next few days, just in case. She herself claimed to be feeling quite a bit better, but she still seemed slightly weaker than before.

After checking out of both the hospital and the Pokemon Center, they all headed to the port with the intent of heading to Cinnabar Island. Without the Battle Frontier in operation, they had decided to head back to Pallet Town for the moment, and decide what to do after that from there.

The ticket vendor for the ferries was male this time, so Brock acquired his ticket without the need for any intervention from Max this time. As Ash stepped forward to buy the three for himself, May, and Max again, he and May shared a brief glance as they recalled what had happened the last time they had purchased tickets.

Once they were all on the boat, and it had cast off from Chrysanthemum Island, Brock once again found a group of sunbathing women to busy himself with, and Max trailed after him shortly, spending a minute to make sure his sister was all right first.

Once they were alone, save for Pikachu, who was perched on Ash's shoulder as usual, Ash made a point of looking away from her nervously, despite the fact that they were sitting next to each other on the same bench. He couldn't quite tell what she was doing, but he didn't want to risk anything happening in front of Pikachu yet.

May noticed this, and took to looking away from him as well, softly giggling to herself as she did. Before too long, however, she couldn't stand the awkward silence any longer, and turned to him, smiling. "Hey, Ash?"

Ash turned to face her slowly. "Y-yeah?" He stammered in response. He'd never noticed it before - he never noticed much of anything about girls, usually - but it suddenly struck him at that moment how beautiful she was, with her red bandana tied around her head and her brown hair framing her face perfectly, along with the flower he'd given her filling the space between her hair and face.

"I was about to head...over there..." She continued, motioning vaguely to somewhere behind him. "But I just wanted to tell you again...thanks for staying with me that night. That really...helped me a lot."

She blushed faintly as she spoke, causing Ash to blush as well, which Pikachu noticed at once. "Y-yeah...no problem."

She began to walk away, but she hadn't taken two steps when the steady rocking of the boat caused her, in her still-recovering state, to lose her balance. She began to fall over, but before she could even cry out for help, Ash had leapt up from his seat and grabbed her under both shoulders.

May stared for a second before she realized what had happened, why she was no longer falling. She turned her face slowly and saw Ash staring at her intently, holding her up.

"Uh...you okay?"

"Yeah." May answered softly, nodding to him as a small smile appeared on her face.

"You probably shouldn't be walking in a place like this." Ash told her, indicating the unsteady floor of the boat. "You're still recovering, you know."

"Y-yeah. You're right."

"Here..." Ash said, shifting positions and bringing her right arm over his head and around his neck, placing his left arm around her waist as he did so.

"Pika...?" Pikachu said softly, but neither of the two answered him.

"Thanks." May told him softly, looking intently into his eyes. The two of them locked gazes for a moment, and looked as if they were about to share another kiss, but then they remembered that Pikachu was with them.

"So...um...where did you...?" Ash asked her.

May giggled and motioned to the railing at the edge of the deck, overlooking the water. "Over there is fine."

Ash nodded and led the two of them across the deck to the railing edge. The two of them stood there for a while, looking out at the water, and although it was another period of silence between them, it felt completely different than the awkward silence of before. The two felt safe, secure, somehow, in the other's arms. And that was all they really needed at that moment.

Please R&R!