Here's Chapter 9, I hope it was worth the wait! Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!
After insuring that the door was closed, Ash let out a huge sigh, leave it to his mother to take every opportunity to tease him. With the better part of his mind arguing that she was the one that brought him in this world and helped shaped him to be the young man he was today, Ash decided that arguing with himself would not accomplish anything thing and that he should change out of his soaking wet clothes. Removing all articles of clothing, Ash made sure that he followed his mother's wishes and put on a clean pair of striped underpants, because even as much as he hated her embarrassing reminders, cleanliness and hygiene were important, especially now that May was here.
After putting on the striped boxers, Ash took the opportunity to look at himself in the mirror that was attached to his door. He never really had noticed before, but there was something that gave him the desire to really evaluate his stature. When Ash first began his journey, his was a small, scrawny kid who had not yet experienced the growth the came with puberty. But from natural aging and the amount of time that he had spent traveling for all these years, Ash could definitely tell a difference in his body. While Ash did not have protruding biceps or pectorals, or a set of abs that would make LT. Surge look like a grunt, Ash did have a solid definition throughout his body, and he definitely was not by any means a scrawny kid. Ash had developed quite the athletic body, and he could not help but think of how May would react or even if she would be impressed if she saw his build. And then it hit him, Ash only cared about the way he looked because of his feelings towards May.
'Well that's a silly thought,' Ash scolded himself inwardly. 'I know May would not care what I looked like, she values a personality over ayn amount of muscle.' Ash then curled his arm and flexed his bicep, showing off a nice, defined bump.
'Although, a little bit of muscle certainly couldn't hurt.'
With a chuckle, Ash slid on a pair of sweatpants, but could not find any clean shirts. Looking around his room, Ash noticed that none of his shirts were anywhere to be found; only his pants and other random assortments of clothing were neatly folded and placed on his dresser, but no shirts. Looking under the stacks of folded clothing, Ash remembered that the last time he had seen his room, which was before he had left to go pick up May, his clothes had been randomly scattered across the room. Only one person would have folded his clothes, and Ash did not like how this situation was turning out. Clearly, Ash's mom was messing with him for having a dirty room, but how far did she go in making her point?
Going through the last stack of clothes, Ash finally found a shirt, but outwardly groaned as he also found the answer to his question. While nothing about the shirt's pattern design was bad, in fact, it was a nice athletic shirt; it was the fact that the shirt was a couple sizes too small. Seeing no other option, Ash put the shirt on, and struggled as he was barely able to squeeze inside of it. He could already feel the shirt constrict tightly around his body, and as he looked in the mirror, Ash saw that his defined figure was seemingly chiseled into the shirt.
"Great," Ash grumbled. "Now I look like one of those tools on that show 'The Fuchsia Shore'. The only thing I need is a spray on tan and some gel in my ha-AHHH."
Before Ash could finish his thought, a surge of electricity coursed throughout Ash's body, and caused him to yelp loudly. His body strength failing him, Ash collapsed into a heap on the floor, as a faint cloud of smoke rose from his body. As he lay on the floor, Ash could hear the snickering of his electric mouse, and could only stutter as he asked, "Pik-kachu, how d-did you even g-get in here? I made sure the d-door was shut…"
Collecting himself, Ash stood up and saw Pikachu sitting on his bed, but before Ash could enact revenge on his Pokémon, Pikachu burst into a fit of laughter. Fearing the worst, Ash turned towards the door so that he could look in the mirror, but unbeknownst to him, May had opened the door, and was standing in the door frame. A look of shock sprang across May's face, but she too started laughing as soon as she fully took in Ash's newly decorated face. Pikachu's thunderbolt had changed the direction of Ash's spikes, as they now were all sticking straight up, almost as if they were gelled in place. The bolt had also singed Ash's face, which was now an even shade of brown, and with the shirt that was two sizes two small, Ash really did look like a giant tool bag. May, however, had not fully taken notice to the shirt and the definition it brought to Ash's figure, and when she did, a bright red blush erupted across her face.
'I didn't know Ash had muscle,' May thought to herself.
May continued to stare, to which Ash took notice. The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk, and asked, "May, are you okay? You seem to be in a daze."
"W-hat, who me? " May stuttered. "I was just… oh shut up Ash Ketchum, how was I supposed to know you hunked up since the last time I saw you?!"
"Well I dunno, maybe you could have noticed during all those hugs today," Ash replied, the smirk turning into a smile. 'Did she really just say I hunked up?'
"And you were wearing like three layers of clothing, for all I know you could have been built like a stack of pillows!" May retorted. "Besides, I was more focused on the fact that I was actually spending time with you, or even talking to you for that matter…"
A pang of guilt hit Ash, who's smile flipped over, as he knew that he had really done a bad job with keeping in contact with May since their journey through Kanto. Sure, they had seen each other at the Wallace Cup in Sinnoh, but after that, the two had not really contacted each other at all. Shaking the singes off his face and the static out of his hair, Ash walked over to May and placed his arms around her, lightly pulling her closer to him as she wrapped her arms around his torso. Ash remembered what she had said when she first arrived in Kanto earlier that day.
'Promise me that we won't be away from each other for so long ever again,' Ash recalled May saying to him at the port.
'I knew that she was feeling down about our time apart, but I didn't realize she felt this strongly about it,' Ash somberly thought.
May suddenly lifted her head, and Ash could see that a light glaze had covered her eyes. Blinking back the would be tears, May softly spoke, almost whispering to Ash, "You know, after all this time, I was starting to think that you had forgotten about me, Ash. It's selfish of me to say, because I know that you were on your journey and I was on mine, and I could have easily tried contacting you, but a part of me was saying that it would just distract you, and I only wanted what was best for you, and know I'm rambling and I sound like.."
"May," Ash interrupted. "It's okay, I know how you feel, I kinda felt the same way. Things just didn't feel right after you went to Johto and I traveled through Sinnoh. Sure, Dawn and Brock made nice company, but, neither of them were you, and I know that I should have contacted you, and I'm sorry for that. I know I promised earlier today that I would never go so long again without contacting you, and I really meant it, because May, there's just this was I feel about you that I can and cannot explain, I get all these weird feelings I don't understand, but it just feels right."
Realizing that he was about to go beyond the point of no return, Ash took a deep breath and steamed forward anyway.
"May, I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I really think that I'm in…"
*DING DONG*
Before Ash could finish his confession, a loud bell rang throughout the house. Ash was puzzled, as the only bell in his house that sounded like that was the doorbell, but who could be at the door at this time of night? No sooner had Ash asked himself this, his mother called upstairs, yelling, "Ash, sweetie, you and May have company at the door!"
Ash and May could only look at each other with confused looks etched on their faces, as neither of them had known or had even invited anyone else to the Ketchum residence for Christmas. Releasing each other, both Ash and May quickly exited the room and hurried down the stairs with Pikachu scurrying at their heels. When the trio reached the bottom of the staircase and entered the living room, May and Ash stopped dead in their tracks, as nothing could have prepared them for who had rang the doorbell.
"Misty, Drew, what are you guys doing here?" Ash asked, failing miserably to hide any surprise in his voice.
"Now Ash Ketchum, that is not anyway to greet your guests, especially when they look like they've been in the cold for hours!" Ms. Ketchum scolded her son. "Now Misty and Drew, make yourselves at home, and take some time to warm up. I've got dinner just about ready, and I'm sure you guys could use a nice home-cooked meal. It sure is a good thing I always make extra food!"
Ms. Ketchum made her way back into the kitchen, leaving Ash, May, Misty and Drew in the living room just staring at each other. Drew coughed, looked at Ash, and said, "Well, I guess to answer your question, truth is, we really only came here after a mix up of plans. Misty, why don't you tell them what happened?"
Misty shot a piercing glare at Drew, she had expected Drew to come up with the cover story, not him make her make one up. Thinking quickly, as to not draw suspicion from Ash or May, Misty hastily put together a story in her head, and explained the "situation" to Ash and May.
"You see, I was looking for something to do for Christmas about a week ago, and Drew just happened to be in Kanto at the time, and we ran into each other, so I invited him over to the Cerulean Gym, but my sisters apparently wanted to throw some sort of party with their friends and kicked us out, so we didn't really have anywhere else to go. So I, being the brilliant person that I am, suggested that we come here and see if maybe you guys had room for two more?"
Misty smiled sheepishly, hoping that May and Ash would buy here lame excuse, and apparently Ash did, as he replied, "Sure, there's always room for friends of ours. We'll have to discuss the sleeping arrangements and everything, but we can always do that after dinner."
Stunned that Ash had bought the excuse so quickly, Misty flashed him a smile, but noticed that May did not look to be as convinced. But before anymore could be said, Ms. Ketchum came in the room shouting, "Dinner is ready!"
I felt like this chapter turned out well, but what do I know, you're the reader! If you feel like it was horrible, have any suggestions, or liked the chapter, please let me know! I work well with constructive criticism and would greatly appreciate it! Thank you! ~SatoshiUnlimited