Chapter 7: "Tying Knots"

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon

A/N: Re-edited on July 2, 2017

"So what now Ash?"

"I don't know Clemont..." He paused and placed his palm on his chin, "Maybe I'll head to the Pokémon Centre first, I still got to register for the league after all. But the only problem's that we don't know where it is"

"We'll show you" Bonnie volunteered instantly.

"That would be great" Ash accepted while giving her the brightest smile.

With that, the new formed group hit the road to the Pokémon Centre. Bonnie was leading the group while Ash and Clemont trailed a bit.

"Is it just me or everyone is staring at us?" Clemont asked nervously.

"Yeah you're right Big Brother." Bonnie admitted too. She raised her head to look at Ash for an answer but he was ever neutral. It didn't seem to bother him a bit.

"Just ignore them" he told the siblings while tilting his cap a bit to cover his eyes. He was used to all that exposure but still he was cursing himself inwardly. "Couldn't even spend a day without making it to the front page" he cursed his luck and sighed mentally.

Seeing Ash acting so calm and casual didn't help the other two though. They were starting to get uneasy as Bonnie tugged his brother's shirt and never letting it go till they made it to the Centre.

The siblings sighed in relief the moment they made it to the Pokémon Centre but little did they know that it was just getting started. Ash made it to the counter and greeted Nurse Joy.

"Welcome Mr. Ketchum, may I help you with something." Joy asked while giving the warmest smile she could maneuver.

"Wait how do you know his name?" Bonnie jumped in with a blink. Ash let out a nervous chuckle while Joy tried to control her own.

"Well everyone does and if you want to know how, take a look behind you" she answered the little girl sweetly while pointing to the television set.

Bonnie turned to see what she meant but the moment she turned she understood everything. Last night's incident was being broadcasted.

"Oh right, now I get it." Clemont said with a small chuckle of his own.

"Wow Ash you've become a hero" Bonnie squeaked and it turned out to be a really bad Idea as it gathered everyone's attention. They all gasped and turned to mention of the name and they all were more than excited to see the boy who saved their city. Ash, Joy and Clemont face palmed in unison, they all knew what was going to follow that. After about 15 minutes, the crowd died down, to which Ash sighed in relief. He was pretty exhausted with all the commotion. He was thanked repeatedly while letting him know how big of a hero he was, while kids asked him for photos and autographs. Some of the girls were still there, staring at him dreamingly from a distance.

Bonnie realized that it was her fault and decided to apologize for her actions. "I'm sorry Ash, I didn't know…" she was stopped by Ash as he placed his hand on her head with and assuring nod. "It's alright, just be careful next time. After all I'm quite used to all this." He told her while rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Yeah it's not the first time for him after all" Nurse Joy joined the conversation and the moment she looked up to Ash, she realized that she had said something she wasn't supposed to.

"What? Does that mean you're famous Ash?" Bonnie squeaked again while leaning to him.

"Bonnie~" Clemont moaned making her realize she had done that again. "Oops sorry" she apologized while clasping her hands over her mouth before giving a sheepish look. Ash gave her a nervous laugh while turning to face Joy.

"Well anyways, I was here to register for the Kalos league though." Ash told her to which she blinked in confused manner.

"But you are already registered." She told him while tilting her head slightly.

"But I just made it to the Kalos region, how could that be possible. Who could've done that?" he asked her looking ever so confused, though he had some idea.

"I think you know precisely who did that" she said with a wink to finish. Ash frowned to realize whom she was referring to. He still didn't know why she was doing this for him. Everyone watched him contemplate something, the frown never leaving his features. He stayed like that for a few moments before nodding understandingly. She smiled before handing him a badge case and a Golden card.

"What is that?" he asked her while raising an eyebrow referring to the golden card.

"It's a Golden membership card. With this you have access to each and every service that is provided by the league, including Pokémon centre, hotel and travelling expenses and everything else you could ever think of." She paused a bit to look at him in the eyes, "It's a good luck gift from the same person who registered you"

Ash's frown increased to a level beyond comprehension. While Bonnie and Clemont both stood there with stupefied expressions on their faces. But then Clemont seemed to realize something.

"Isn't that the same card provided to the Champions?" he asked while adjusting his glasses, to which Joy nodded admittedly.

"But who is that person?" Bonnie asked Ash while tugging his shirt. Ash had to groan mentally. He really didn't want to talk about his past right now.

"I don't know Bonnie" he lied to her but with such innocence that she had to buy it, he turned to face joy who now had a frown on her face. Seeing the look on her face he sighed deeply. "I'll keep it though, just in case" Joy's expression changed instantly, she was told that he might not accept it but she was delighted to see the otherwise.

"Good, now I should wish you luck for your journey and yeah thanks a lot for what you did to save our city" Ash thanked her for her kindness before turning to leave. No one missed her lingering gaze on him until they were out of her field of vision.

"You're quite popular in girls don't you think?" Bonnie nudged Ash trying to tease him.

"Well I don't think that's a good thing Bonnie" he said while chuckling nervously.

"Of course it is. You don't have to work hard to find a girl like Big brother."

"Hey~~" Bonnie giggled heartedly, "Seriously Big brother I'll have to find you a girl in the end." She scolded before huffing in irritation.

"At least he has you" Ash said smoothly while looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Yeah, but I won't be forever with him. So it's my mission to find a keeper for Clemont." "Bonnie~" That was it, Clemont used his mechanical arm to grab and escort her out of the embarrassing conversation. All the while mumbling about something like nosy siblings.

It was right though. He had gotten quite popular with girls. Well it wasn't a good thing though as he was always the one being stared at. "Only if I had some Privacy" he muttered to himself. But the moment he had said those words, he regretted it. He knew that the person who had registered him for the league and left that card for him was none other than her. But the question is, why was she doing that? He shook his head to throw her off his mind and shrugged a bit.

The group reached to the exit of the centre where Ash halted and turned to face his new found friends with small sad smile. The most difficult part of a journey was about to come, saying farewell.

"Well I guess this is it then." He said while looking at them sadly.

Clemont tried to say something but couldn't find the words, so he just nodded. Bonnie however had her head held down with her hands clenched into fists, as if she was going to start crying any moment.

Ash noticed that they were both really upset about leaving him, especially Bonnie. He knew it shouldn't be that hard, after all they had just met but to see the otherwise was actually quite wild. He too had bonded with the siblings quite deeply especially the younger blonde. He didn't know why but something in her made him feel happy. Maybe it was due to her bubbly personality or it was due to the fact that she made him feel as if he was looking at his own younger self. He did understand what they wanted though. They wanted to go with him and then he remembered that he had done the same mistake before. It was with Misty, he hadn't realized that she wanted to continue her travel with him but he was too stupid to see that back then and was only able to find it when he was told by Brock hence ending up hurting her. And now he wasn't going to repeat the same mistake with them.

"Hey Clemont" Clemont looked at him instantly with the mention of his name.

"Yeah Ash?"

"What are planning to do now?" he asked while scratching behind Pikachu's ears who was at his usual place.

"Well um, I don't know" he answered nervously. Honestly he wanted to travel with him. By meeting him, it felt like he could provide him the thing that he was looking for. It may seem wild but he had developed immense respect for him in such a small time and the only thing he wanted to do now was to follow him.

Ash smirked to the response. He closed his eyes as the smirk on his face changed into a warm smile.

"Well if that's the case" They both immediately perked up to see what he had to say. Hoping beyond hope that he would say what they thought he would.

"Why don't you come with me? We can have a lots of fun together." They both were shocked and stood frozen to their places. Yeah they hoped that he would ask them to go with them but they had never thought he would actually ask them to join him, someone like him. Ash knew what their responses would be and was more than pleased with himself for having done the right thing.

"Yay!" Bonnie squealed and she was so excited that she dashed and tackled Ash into a hug. Which he returned while chuckling softly.

"Well I got one answer, what about you Clemont?" he asked him while turning his gaze to the older blonde. His mention helped him recover from his shock as he tried to contain his excitement.

"That would be great Ash. I hope we won't be a burden to you" he said while his eyes shining in excitement. Ash chuckled to his words.

"Of course you won't" he assured him as Bonnie finally let go of him.

"Ash you're the best" she squeaked, "We're going to have so much fun and we'll see a lot of cute Pokémon too."

"Yeah that's for sure" he assured her while turning to Clemont.

"So now let's get going" he said to which both the blondes nodded happily.

"Where are we going Ash?" Bonnie asked while playing with Pikachu who was in her arms at the moment.

"Well, we're going to Santalune city for my first gym battle." He told her while looking at the path ahead him.

"Gym battles are so cool" she squealed.

"I've heard that Santalune City's gym leader is really strong." Clemont said from his place at the end of the group. He had been continuously lagging from the very beginning.

"Well, we'll have to find that out ourselves and she being strong, well we won't have it any other way. Right Buddy?"

"Pika" Pikachu gave a fist pump from his newly instated second favorite place to show his excitement.

"You look pretty confident Ash, you must be really strong" Bonnie squealed the last part.

Ash let out a nervous chuckle, "You think so?" he asked in the most innocent manner with a tilt of his head, to which she gave a big "Yupp!"

"How do you know that the Gym leader's a 'she'" Clemont asked while halting in his path. Ash sweat dropped to the question. He really need to learn to keep his mouth shut. He was talking way too much.

"Well I've heard" he told them while laughing awkwardly. Clemont decided not to bug too much about it and left it right there.

Our heroes were making their way through a forest which would lead them to the Santalune City. Bonnie was still leading the group while Clemont and Ash were following her while talking about some Type-related advantages and disadvantages. They stopped though, as their leader came to a halt.

"Huh… What's wrong Bonnie?" Clemont enquired while making his way to her to check what the problem was. She wasn't the one to be distracted that easily when she's excited and from the way she was behaving, it was safe to say that she was super excited. He had a faint idea what the problem would be though. And he was right.

"It's sooo cute." Bonnie squealed, stars twinkling in her eyes. She had spotted a Pokémon.

"Oh it's a Dedenne, he's an electric/fairy type Pokémon." Clemont suggested while adjusting his glasses.

"He sure is" Ash admitted to Bonnie.

"Big Brother, wouldn't you catch him for me." she pleaded with her best puppy dog eyes.

"I… I don't know Bonnie, you're way too young to take care of a Pokémon."

"Aw please, I will take good care of him" she tugged onto his shirt, pulling it the hardest she could with her little hands. She really wanted to be with him. He was too cute for her to let go.

"Come on Bonnie, don't act like a kid." Clemont reprimanded her while turning to dodge her pleading eyes so not to lose his composure.

"I am a kid" she clenched her hands into fists and screamed in the highest pitch she could utter, to which Clemont's frown deepened.

Ash was trying his best to hold his laughter. "Are all sibling like this? I wonder what May and Max are doing." But when Bonnie pouted her lips in annoyance and Clemont mimicked her, he couldn't hold it any longer. He chuckled slightly which drew the attention of the siblings.

"It's not funny Ash" Clemont gave out a frustrated complaint. Bonnie however had a light bulb lit over her head. She rushed to him and it was his turn to be tugged by her. But before she could plead any further, he raised his hand in a stopping manner.

"Clemont I think you should do it. I know you think she's way too young to take care of a Pokémon, yet. But believe me I was just 10 when I started my journey with an arrogant Pikachu." He got a playful complaining squeak from Pikachu to whom he apologized the next moment.

"Well if you say so, I guess…" Clemont agreed but nervously, he still wasn't sure that it was a right idea but if he said it was fine then he decided to place his doubts aside.

"Alright, I'll catch him" Bonnie couldn't be any happier and in the heat of the moment she squealed in joy and she did that really loud thus frightening the little mouse Pokémon. He dashed into the bushes before disappearing.

"Bonnie~" Both Ash and Clemont moaned in unison.

"Aw what did I do? We're never going to find him now" Ash knew she was upset, okay... okay... super upset. He could've sworn that he even saw some tears forming in her eyes. He kneeled down to her height and placed his hand on her head, thus gaining her attention.

"Don't worry, we'll find him, alright?" He assured her with the sweetest smile he could wear. She loosened up a bit, she didn't know why but being around him made her feel safe. It could've been because of what he's done for the one's he didn't even knew. Or maybe because he always seemed to wear that smile, no matter how hard the situation would turn out to be. She controlled her tears and nodded enthusiastically with a huge grin.

"Now buddy, see if you could sense his electric signature." Pikachu nodded instantly and jumped off his shoulder taking his place on a rock. He looked back to his trainer who nodded, asking him to do it. With the nod, Pikachu shot an insanely powerful thunderbolt towards the sky.

Both the sibling's watched in awe as the bolt changed into a sphere of energy after attaining a definite height. The sphere kept increasing in diameter and thus engulfing everything in its way. Clemont wasn't so sure about being engulfed into lightening so he pulled Bonnie behind himself to try and protect her. But Ash assured them that it wasn't dangerous and to demonstrate his point, he made his way right through it. Clemont sighed in relief and released her from his grip.

She however wasn't scared a bit, in fact she was totally mesmerized by what she was seeing. After a few seconds the energy engulfed them too and just as Ash had told them it didn't hurt a bit. In fact, their hair started to float as is they were weightless. After about one minute, Pikachu stopped and the strange energy vanished into thin air. He turned to Ash and gave and excited squeak, to which Ash smiled and nodded.

"Good work buddy, now let's go catch him for Bonnie." Pikachu began to rush deep into the forest, leaving the pathway. Ash was quick to follow him but Clemont and Bonnie were frozen in their spots.

"What was that?" Clemont managed to get the words out but still staggering with his voice a bit.

"Well it's a little trick that I came up with someone" he told him in a casual tone. Not really understanding what was the big deal about it.

"It was sooo cool" Bonnie squealed the moment she came back to wits, Ash gave her another sweet smile before motioning them to follow to which they obliged.

"I choose you, Fennekin" Serena kneeled to pick the fox Pokémon up, who seemed to be very pleased with her decision. Though the other Pokémon seemed to be a little upset about it. She'd already decided, whom she was going to choose even before she left her home after all.

"Good, now that you've chosen your first Pokémon, I would declare you to be an official Pokémon trainer. Take good care of her alright?" Said Professor Sycamore with a pleasant expression. It was always a pleasant experience to see a new trainer choose their Pokemon.

"Here, these are your Pokeballs and your Pokedex. I wish you good luck"

"Thanks Professor, for everything." With that the professor began to turn and leave but Serena called him.

"What is it? Do you need anything else?" he asked while turning to face her again.

"Professor, I know it's an awkward thing to ask but do you know the boy who helped that Garchomp the other night?" She was kind of embarrassed and asked rather nervously.

"Why yes, you must be talking about Ash?" he answered sounding rather proud.

"Yes, Ash. That's it. It has to be him" he thought to herself, delighting with the mention of the name.

"Yes, do you happen to know where I would be able to find him?" she asked while taking a step towards him in excitement.

"He told me that he was going to challenge the Santalune gym, maybe you could find him there."

"Great, Thanks a lot Professor." She waved him bye and dashed out of the exit.

"Well, someone's excited." Professor chuckled while shaking his head slightly before turning to head towards his room.

"Oh I can't believe it. I'll finally meet him after all these years." She pulled out a handkerchief from her bag, it had a red Pokeball on its corner. She brought it near to her face, admiring it and soon a blush crept over her face.

"Ash"

"Told you, we're going to find him." Ash smirked as they were now hiding in some bushes and looking over to a certain mouse Pokémon.

"Pikachu, you're awesome." Pikachu mimicked his trainer's actions, just what he always did when he was embarrassed, to which all of them chuckled.

"It's your turn Bonnie." Ash said as she gulped and showed herself to the little fairy type. He was startled with the surprise appearance and tried to run away but when he turned to look at the little girl, he stopped. Bonnie made her way to him with a berry in her palm ever so slowly. She didn't want to repeat her mistake and scare him and luckily it all went quite fine. He approached her and took the berry from her hand and started eating it.

Bonnie suppressed her urge to glomp him as he was too cute. She knew what she had to do.

"Dedenne, I was thinking…. Umm"

"Dene~" he tilted his head in confusion.

"Well I was thinking…., would you like to come with me?" she failed to find her confidence. She wanted him so bad and she didn't want to catch him by hurting him, that's why Clemont wasn't fighting him. She had told them that she wanted him to be her friend. Ash was really impressed by the young girl, she was really proving to be like him.

"Ne~" Dedenne blinked a bit. He wasn't sure what to do.

"Oh please, please, please Dedenne, we'll be best friends." She clasped her hands together to beg him to come with her. He looked into the young girl's eyes for a few moments without moving a bit. Then he dropped his head down as if he was thinking something.

"She did it." Ash declared proudly with his face breaking into a huge smile. And the moment he had said that, the mouse Pokémon raised his head to look at her and gave her a big nod and a joyful cry.

"Oh really? Thank you so much." She broke into tears as he climbed onto her shoulders and finally giving a big jump to make it to her head. She quickly whipped the tears of joy and started to laugh heartedly.

Ash and Clemont showed up the next moment and Clemont was speechless. His little sister had caught her first Pokémon, without even throwing a pokeball. He was more than happy for her and he too got a little numb. Ash however was watching her playing with him with his hands crossed over his chest looking really impressed. He reached to his buddy at his usual place on his shoulder and scratched him behind his ears, earning a "Chaaa~" from him.

"Here, go and make it official." Clemont handed her a Pokeball which she took gladly. She then turned to Dedenne and asked him if he was ready to which his nodded with a small cry. She pressed the button and soon he was hit with a red light and dematerialised into the ball. It shook for once and then it was done.

She quickly released him and he took his previous place on her head." Clemont proceeded to take the Pokeball from her, to which Bonnie frowned. She was about to complain when Ash explained his actions.

"You see Bonnie, you are not officially old enough to keep a Pokeball with you. So until you're big enough Clemont's going to be the official trainer of Dedenne." Clemont nodded to his words, thus confirming them.

"Thank you so much big brother" she wrapped Clemont into a big hug which he happily returned. Ash and Pikachu couldn't help but smile to the scene in front of them, it was too adorable.

"I think we should camp here for the night, we won't be able to reach the Santalune city till tomorrow." Clemont suggested, to which the other two happily agreed.

Clemont prepared the food for the group and according to Ash, it was one the best he had ever tasted. After that they had finished their food, it was time to call in the day. Clemont offered Ash to share their tent when he came to know that he didn't has one but Ash rejected saying that he loved to sleep under the stars.

As soon as the siblings had turned out for the day, he released his newest member from his Pokeball who was more than happy to be out as he wasn't used to being there for long.

"So Froakie, it's time for your first training." Ash announced while crossing his hands over his chest and leaning to him a bit. Froakie gave a confident cry and made a determined stance to which Ash smirked. He knew he could help him with what he wanted and he was pleased to see that he was ready to do everything for it.

"So I take it as speed is your speciality huh? Froakie nodded confidently. Sure he was fast, he was too fast.

"You know Pikachu's fast too" he said while turning his attention towards the one and only who was mimicking his trainer's actions precisely.

"We'll consider you fast, if you are able to impress him" Froakie gave another confident nod and gave a loud cry.

"Alright then, Buddy don't go too crazy alright?" Pikachu gave him an assuring smile before motioning the frog Pokémon to follow him.

"Alright 100 laps of the camp, Froakie try and finish at least 50." Froakie face planted. He gave Ash "you can't be serious" look to which his new trainer replied that he was damn serious indeed. Pikachu decided to give him a boost. He nudged and called him mockingly, which did the trick as he followed his lead. He looked back to see that Ash was making his way back to the camp, maybe to sleep? Soon they both left to do their task and Froakie was pretty pleased with himself as he was holding up pretty well with Pikachu.

But after about 50 laps, he was spent and was really frustrated. After all he was wrong about Ash. He was just another trainer who would spend his Pokémon to be stronger. He didn't know what real strength was. He was so frustrated that he left his training in the middle. Pikachu being too ahead of him didn't realize it. He was broken, when he had seen Ash, he thought that he had found the very person he was looking for so desperately. Acting so selfless and even daring to throw up his own life to be with his Pikachu. He had thought that he knew what was training a Pokémon all about. It wasn't about making them die training. It was about loving them so much that they surpass their potential for them. At least he could have trained with them, rather he went to sleep instead.

He was furious to himself. He jumped to a tree and started heading away from the camp, but came into halt after hearing a sound of thud and it wasn't normal to hear such sound at the middle of the night. He approached to the possible location of the reason for the sound and what he saw blew his mind.

It was Ash indeed. He had fallen from a tree and by looking at the surroundings, it seemed that the reason was a broken branch. He was twitching in pain and struggled to stand up. He was bit of a dizzy and fell again while trying to stand. He managed to get on his feet after about 5 tries and as soon as he had done it, he hooped toward another tree to grab its branch and pulling himself up.

The moment he made it to the tree, he quickly jumped to the next branch and next and next till he slipped his footing and lost his balance. He was still hanging to the branch though but got a slight cut on his cheek while doing so. He pulled himself up the branch again and repeated his course.

Froakie couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had never seen any trainer working so hard. Not just the trainer he had left but not any single one. He realized why Pikachu respected him so much and now feeling an utter shame and regret for what he was about to do. He was about to lose his true partner. But then he got nudged from behind and he came to know that it was Pikachu. He was wearing a sorry smile but Froakie couldn't figure out why. It should've been him to wear that kind of smile. He was the one who should be sorry. By doing something as foolish as it, he had disrespected his Sensei and nakama.

Pikachu motioned him to follow him without a word. Froakie knew the only way to win his Sensei's respect was to win Pikachu's respect and he knew how to do it.

After about 2 hours Ash was lying on his back with Pikachu on his chest, staring at the beautiful blanket of stars. He had put on a band aid on the place he got cut and had a faint smile of satisfaction on his face.

"So he earned your respect hun?" Ash asked while trying to hide his happiness for the favor of remaining neutral but failing miserably so.

"Pika~chu" he nodded while looking as proud as Ash was right now. He knew that small thing had a lot in him.

"Fennekin, come on out."

"Fen~" The fox Pokémon tilted her head in confusion. She didn't know why she had called her at the middle of the night. Serena picked her up and placed her on her laps.

"Sorry Fennekin, I couldn't sleep so I thought if you could give me some company." She told her apologetically, to which she barked happily.

She began to groom her fur and if anyone would've been seeing them, they could've told that the fox Pokemon was loving it. "You know Fennekin? Tomorrow is going to be very important for me. I'm going to start a new life, a trainer's life." The fox Pokémon started to nuzzle her hands gently to assure that she's going to be with her. Serena couldn't help but smile, she picked her up and took her in an embrace.

"And I don't just want to start my journey, I want to start my journey with him." She whispered ever so softly but Fennekin, being a fox got her accurately.

"Fenniken?" she pushed herself back to look into her eyes, she wasn't sure who was that 'him' she was talking about.

"Oh, I forgot, I haven't told you about him yet. Have I?" Fennekin shook her head in denial to which she smiled. That's what she wanted. She wanted to talk about him.

"You know Fenekkin, when I was a little girl, I met a boy." She paused as a smile crept over her face. "The sweetest I've ever met. He gave me the best company I ever had and you can say I was all into him." She finished with a chuckle. "But then I had to leave him and ever since I've always wanted to see him again, be by him again." She almost whispered the last part but then her mood brightened up in a split second. "And tomorrow I'm going to meet him again, after all these years."

She paused to look out of the window and stare the moon. "Will he remember me?" she asked to herself. Fenekkin started to lick her cheeks to show her affection causing Serena to giggle heartedly.

"He better remember me and if he doesn't I'll make sure to make him do."

Author's Note: No excuses at all just an apology for the delayed upload; sorry about the delay people after promising a quick upload. Well here's the next chapter. Let me know how you felt about it. Thank you for all your support and reviews since the last time. :D