Hoenn Is Where The Start Is
Chapter 6 - Ash and May Begin.
Last time, Caroline and Norman decided that Max would stay at home, but were happy for him to rejoin Ash and May at the start of his journey. So, Ash and May split with Max and the duo head forward, heading to the next city, where Ash will fight for a badge, and May, who will be partipating for a ribbon.
It was late morning and the duo had been walking for an hour or so. Small talk being exchanged, trying to get to know eachother a bit more.
"So when did you decide you wanted to become a co-ordinator?" Ash asks curiously.
"Well, when I was watching Wallace on T.V I saw his performance with Milotic, and it inspired me to show off the beuty in the pokemon, rather than showing them by pure strategy and power." May tells him.
"Don't you need more than 1 pokemon to participate?" Ash asks. "Thats what you told me a while back anyway".
Mays eyes widened slightly. Two pokemon were the best option. One in the appeals round, and another in the battle rounds.
"Yeah, so I have my Torchic at the moment, and ill need to catch another pokemon, lets go!" May replies with enthusiasm, moving her hand, and pointing to a direction away from their path, to try and find a second pokemon to add to her arsenal.
"Alright then, im going to train my pokemon, I've got a badge to get." Ash says.
Ash calls Tailow from its pokeball, whilst pikachu jumps from his shoulder, preparing for its training session.
"Lets get stronger in what we already have. Tailow, use quick attack!"
Tailow flies high, and soars down quickly with a white trail behind it, indicating its speed.
The attack hits the leaves on a close-by tree and causes the tree to rustle and many leaves to fall.
The rest of Ash's training session continues like this, eventually making the moves of his pokemon stronger, whilst trying to use them in different ways to make plans to get out of different situations. After all, what can a trainer expect in their first ever gym battle.
May was away from Ash, in another area of the field, in the grass, trying to find a second pokemon to try and capture.
An Eevee had entered her line of sight.
"Hey Ash. Over here!" She yells to the boy. Motioning him to come over, to witness her first capture.
"Whats up May?" Ash asks the Hoenn native. But then spots the little brown pokemon.
Ash pulls his pokedex from his back pocket, and scans the pokemon.
Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Depending on circumstances, Eevee can evolve into many forms.
"The evolution pokemon? That could be useful" May thought aloud.
"Good luck" Ash says, slowly backing away a few steps, to give some space for the battle.
"Thanks Ash." May says, then winking at him. "But I don't need luck".
The wink makes Ash's face go redder, the colour spreading on his cheeks.
'Why do I keep feeling like this when she does stuff like that. Do I like her?' Ash thought to himself, then thinking of something else, to try and return his face to its normal, slightly tanned, colour.
Luckily for him though, she had her own thoughts to focus on.
'Why did I do that? Why did he blush? Oh, maybe he li-' She interruptes her thoughts. 'No! I have to focus on capturing this Eevee.'
"Torchic! Its time to take the stage!" She calls as she throws the pokeball into the air, releasing the fire chicken pokemon.
Torchic was ready to battle, whilst Eevee wasn't prepared to take on the fire type.
"Torchic, ember!" May commands, telling the pokemon to start the battle.
The fire attack hits the unaware eevee, and does a lot of damage to the normal type.
Eevee seems annoyed by the suprise attack, and charges in on torchic with a tackle attack.
"May, do something!" Ash calls out to her from the sidelines.
"Oh, right." She responds. "Torchic, use peck attack!"
Torchics beak glows white, and the incoming eevee collides it, causing more damage to the evolution pokemon.
"Alright!" May grabs a pokeball. She throws it towards the weakened eevee. The pokeball engulfs the pokemon and rattles on the floor for a few moments.
The pokeball locks.
"I did it!" May cheers. "I caught Eevee."
May picks up the pokeball and places it on a pokeball holder on the belt. Then returning torchic to its pokeball then doing the same.
"Nice job May, now you have two pokemon too" Ash states, happy that her first capture was a success.
"Oh yeah, you caught a tailow whilst me and Max were at home. I forgot." May giggles akwardly.
She wraps her arms around the boy in a friendly hug, which Ash returns.
"Congratulations" She says to him quietly, whilst the hug gets more developed. An onlooker would definetly say the pair were a couple. But the duo didn't worry
about that. Their minds were too focused on the moment.
She places her head on his shoulder. And Ash pulls her closer to him, with almost no distance between them both. She looks at his face, his messy raven black hair, his friendly brown eyes.
He looks down at her, and smiles.
A smile of comfort, safety, and love.
Mays heart almost skipped a beat as she felt his warm breath on her neck.
She lifts her head slowly from his shoulder, and her eyes flicker closed.
Ash follows sub-conciously, with his eyes now closed too and lips slightly apart.
Their bodies slowly coming closer together, until..
Their lips meet.
Their first kiss...
The feeling was amazing for them both, a feeling of pure comfort, excitement and instinct. So many words to try and describe the most complicated feeling, which they both felt right then...
Love.
The kiss didn't last long, maybe 3 seconds. But to them, it felt a lot longer.
The two split apart, and they left eachothers arms, with intense blush's on their face.
'I can't believe that just happened. And it felt right. I know I have feelings for him, but is this the right moment?' May thought to herself.
Ash then gave a reassuring smile to her, to show that he wasn't shocked or upset about the event that just happened, and put out a hand for her to take.
She took his hand and smiled back, showing that she was happy how things turned out. And the two walked further down the path.
However, nothing was said between the two. Both were thinking of something to say, but what could be said after that situation.
'Where do we go from here' They both wondered.
As they continue walking in the comfortable silence. The pair begin to notice the ammount of tree's beggining to appear around the path way, and that the path was becoming less visible.
"Oh, this must be Petalburg woods. On the other side of this is Rustburo city." She informs to Ash.
"Oh right, this is the forest between them on the map. I remember now." Ash recalls, thinking back to the pokemon centre. "I think we should camp in there. I doubt we would get out by night-time. And if we stayed up all night, we would be too tired".
"Ok then, lets do that." May says as she tugs his hand. "C'mon, at least walk faster Ash, don't want you to get left behind after all." May continued as she laughed at Ash pouting, clearly pretending to be sad.
"Aw. Ash-y, you have such a cute pout-y face" May says mockingly, with no seriousness, and started to laugh
Well, at least that got Ash's pouting to stop, as a smile was slowly emerging on his face, then joining May in the laughter.
After that, the couple continued to walk further into the forest, reducing the distance as much as posible between them and Rustboro city before they sleep.
However, time and energy were both not on their side, as the walking speed had slowed a lot and the light from the sun was becoming less and less, and there would be hardly anytime before the sky was dark.
"Hey Ash, lets stop here, its getting dark soon, and im tired.." May explains, persuading the boy to rest here for the night.
Of course, he was more than willing to stop, as his legs felt like they would collapse at any moment.
"Sure, lets stop here." Ash agree's.
May sits on the ground. Then slowly pulls her sleeping bag from her travelling bag, and rolls it out next to Ash's.
Pikachu lay asleep at the bottom of Ash's sleeping bag, restoring its energy for tomorrow.
Ash lays in his sleeping bag, and puts his hands behind his head, using them as a pillow whilst gazing up at the stars that are not blocked by the tree's.
May, on the other hand, was in her sleeping bag facing away from the Kanto native.
'What happens now? We didn't speak at all. I wish we didn't kiss if we aren't going to speak.'
She turns over in her sleeping bag to face the boy.
"Hey Ash?" She says, trying to get the attention of her travelling partner, and - now obvious - crush.
Ash turns to face her, waiting for her to continue speaking.
"You know, after what happened earlier.. what happens now?" She asks him, curious on what he thinks after the kiss.
"What happens next? We go to Rustburo." Ash says to her.
May sighs. After the kiss they shared, all he is thinking about is the journey.
"No Ash, I mean about the ki-" May says, but interupted by the male trainer.
"I know what you were talking about, the kiss..." Ash trailes off. " But right now, i've been through a lot over the last few days, especially today. So, let me think it all over, and we will see what happens, but for now, lets continue together in the morning and go to Rustboro city. Does that sound ok?" Ash continued on, explaining his thoughts on what has happened.
"Yeah sure, I understand. But remember its rude to keep a girl waiting." She says whilst giggling.
Ash joins in the laughter.
"Sure, ill keep that in mind." Ash replied.
And with the akward silence removed, they both focus on getting some sleep.
"Night May."
"Goodnight, Ash"
A/N : Well, here is a bit of romance for the advanceshippers out there, make sure to give feedback on what you like/dislike. Thanks for reading!