The next day found Ash driving through May's quiet neighborhood on a sunny Saturday morning. During a brief text conversation, he and May had determined that they'd work on their set building at her house for the day. So Ash made sure to come over bright and early with all the supplies packed into his car. He had just pulled into May's driveway and made his way up the walkway before knocking on the front door, catching the attention of May and her mother, both of whom were in the living room. May flinched in realization and audibly gulped, trying to rid herself of her nerves.

"Honey, relax." Caroline reminded her as she took it upon herself to get up and open the door. "Hello there. You must be Ash right?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm here to see May so we can keep working on our project. If that's ok of course." he explained.

"Yes of course come on in. She's in the living room." Caroline nodded, opening the door wider for him. Ash nodded and came inside, carrying the materials to the living room. May nervously stood up from the couch and, after taking one more deep breath to calm herself down, she greeted him in her trademark soft voice.

"Hi…"

"Hey May." he replied with a smile as he set the materials down on the ground. May sat down on the carpet amongst the materials and Ash sat across from her, arranging the canvas on the cardboard he brought to protect the floor. While he did that, May took the paint cans and opened the first few they needed, stirring the paint a little with a paintbrush. Ash smiled at her and picked up another paintbrush. "Ready?"

"Yeah…let's get started." she nodded as she dipped her brush in and began painting the background, starting with the black. Ash followed her lead and started painting as well, starting from the other side to help cover ground. May glanced up and noticed his technique and, after hesitating for a moment, finally spoke up. "Um…Ash?"

"What's up?" he asked, looking back at her.

"Um…the color would be more even if…if your strokes were like this…" she said, demonstrating painting with long sweeping lines instead of the short and hurried manner he was doing. "B-But you don't have to…j-just a thought…"

"A good one too. Thanks, May." he smiled, changing his style to mimic her stroke. She blinked in surprise, stunned that he took her advice so readily. She never gave advice outside of writing her columns because she was always afraid of people thinking her ideas, and by extension her, were stupid. She cracked a tiny smile before getting back to her painting. The two of them worked together until the canvas was covered in black paint in its entirety.

"Now maybe some blue and purple assets now to make it more dynamic…?" she suggested, testing a little once again.

"Sure thing." he nodded. Each of them grabbed a finer brush and dipped them into the other colors, May taking purple and Ash taking blue. "How should we handle this one?"

"Well…we should try to do it with a much lighter touch…kinda like clouds or streaking stars." she explained.

"Oh, that makes sense. Alright let's do it." he nodded, shifting his position so he was laying on his stomach. He began painting with a much different style, doing his best to keep it light and shapeless. May's smile grew a little as she mirrored his actions, adding her own purple to his blue. The two of them worked diligently for a time until finally she looked up at him and noticed a bit of paint on his cheek. Seeing that he didn't seem to notice, she sat up and called to him.

"Um...Ash?"

"Yeah May?" he asked, looking up from the painting.

"You...have a bit of paint on your cheek…" she informed him, gesturing towards his right cheek.

"I do?" he asked, feeling around his face and looking for the paint she was referencing. May couldn't help but give a small smile as she nodded. He just looked really cute. Finally, Ash seemed to find the paint with his hand.

"Oh shoot. Can I use your bathroom so I can wash it off?" he asked politely.

"Sure. It's down the hall to your left." she nodded.

"Thanks." he replied, setting down his brush and heading into the hallway. May's smile only grew as she watched him go, failing to notice her mother's grin, as she had been watching the two of them from the kitchen.

"So that's the boy you're crushing on." she suddenly spoke up, catching May's attention and making her face go bright red.

"Mom!" she yelled.

"What? He couldn't have heard me." Caroline chuckled.

"Don't talk like that…" May mumbled, grumbling to herself.

"Honey, would you relax? It looks like you're both having a good time." Caroline smiled. "And he seems very sweet."

"Mom what did I just say?! Don't get any ideas!" May growled.

"Just try to relax ok sweetheart? He seems like a good guy." Caroline sighed, heading outside to visit Norman and Max in the greenhouse. May sighed to herself and got back to painting as she waited for Ash to return.


After a few hours, and several more layers of paint to just about finish their artwork of a tower balcony, Ash and May were dipping their brushes into the last color, a bit of green so that they could paint some ivy plants on the tower. As they were about to start painting again, May glanced up at him again and smiled softly. Ash noticed her glance and simply smiled at her, as was the customary response, but became curious when a little giggle escaped her lips.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Paint again…" she said before giggling a bit more.

"Wait seriously?" he asked, feeling his face again until he did indeed find more paint on his cheeks again. May's fit of giggles only increased as Ash looked back at her. A little smirk crossed his face and he proceeded to gently poke her face with his brush, surprising her. "Now you have some too."

"Heh…childish much?" she chuckled as she rubbed the paint on her cheek in an attempt to get it off. However, her efforts only caused the paint to smear instead of fade, causing Ash to start laughing. A similarly devious smirk crossed her face as she picked her brush back up. "So that's how you want to play huh?" She then proceeded to paint a green streak along his arm, only causing his laughter to increase.

"Oh it's on!" he challenged her as he painted another section of her face with his brush.

"Hey!" she laughed as she lashed back at him, managing to get some paint on his neck with her brush. The two of them laughed as they fought back and forth, trying to get paint on each other in any way that they could. Eventually, they both exhausted one another and just sat covered in paint and laughing. Ash looked over at her and was surprised to see May laughing genuinely for the first time he'd ever seen and he couldn't help but smile at her. The carefree joy and laughter were a good look on her. Made her look lovely from his point of view. That was when May noticed him looking at her, causing her to blush and quickly look away. "Well uh…guess we should get cleaned up before we finish up…"

"Heh...probably a good idea." he chuckled.

"Do you happen to have any fresh clothes with you...?" she asked, embarrassed to even do so.

"Yeah. I always keep a spare in the car. I've been known to go a little overboard during lunch sometimes." he laughed to himself, making May smile softly at his honesty.

"Then there's a shower upstairs you can use." she directed him.

"Ok, thanks May." he smiled before heading off to grab his change of clothes. May got up as well and headed to the master bedroom to shower too.


After the two of them had both cleaned up, Ash got out of the stall and dried himself off. May however stepped out of her stall and looked around, quickly realizing a mistake.

"Oh shoot...I forgot to grab new clothes…" she grumbled to herself. Sighing, she wrapped a towel around herself and walked out of the bathroom at the same time that Ash walked out of the other bathroom in his spare clothes. They both looked up at the same time and their eyes met. May blushed heavily and froze in place, unable to believe that this was actually happening. Ash was in a very similar spot, blushing as he stared at her, unable to tear his eyes away from her.

"U-Uh…" was the only thing that came from his mouth. May's response wasn't much more coherent. She simply squeaked in embarrassment and ran to her room as fast as she could. She closed her door quickly and pressed her back against it.

"Of course, that has to happen...great job May…" she growled at herself. After taking a few moments to curse her own carelessness, she sighed and got out some fresh clothes before heading back downstairs, knowing she couldn't avoid seeing Ash forever. Despite how much she desperately wanted to right now. She found him back in the living room waiting for her. A big blush was still prominent on his cheeks and didn't make the situation any less awkward. Nevertheless, May swallowed her nerves as best she could and she walked over to him. "I'm so sorry…"

"N-No...I'm sorry…" he insisted, finally looking up at her.

"No, really I should've been more careful...I'm sorry…" she tried.

"No really May, I'm sorry…" he assured her. "Please forgive me."

"Ash…" she whispered as she sat beside him on the couch. "Please...it's ok...it was just an accident."

"It's not ok…" he said firmly.

"But-"

"No buts...It was wrong of me to have seen you in only a towel…"

"It was just an accident...please don't feel bad…" she tried, putting a hand on his shoulder. Her action caused Ash to finally look her in the eye, blushing once again. "Really...it's ok...

"...Okay…" he finally conceded. May smiled a little in response and he returned the gesture. Their moment was suddenly interrupted when Ash's stomach growled loudly, catching them both by surprise.

"Heh...sorry." he apologized, sweatdropping in embarrassment.

"Well, maybe that's a sign we should break for lunch." she chuckled.

"Sounds good to me." he said with a small smile. May nodded and got up from the couch, heading for the kitchen as Ash followed her.

"What are you in the mood for?" she asked as she opened the door to her pantry.

"For today, I'm thinking noodles." he said, making May smile.

"That's my favorite…" she informed him.

"Oh really? Cool." he smiled back at her. With his verdict given, she took out some pasta and began cooking, making a simple recipe as she hummed softly. Ash meanwhile sat down at the kitchen table and watched her, unable to get the image of her in a towel out of his head. And he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. Soon enough, May served two bowls of pasta, bringing them to the table and sitting across from him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I hope you like it." she replied before digging right in. Ash did the same and smiled.

"Tastes great! Nice work May!" he told her, grinning. She smiled and blushed a little in response to his compliment.

"Thank you…"

"You're welcome!" Both of them smiled at one another as they ate, simply enjoying one another's company for now.


After finishing their bowls, and both of them having seconds, they finally finished eating and set their bowls down, breathing a content sigh.

"Man, I'm full." Ash chuckled.

"Me too." May agreed.

"Well in that case, should we get back to work?" he offered, getting up from the table.

"Sure." she nodded, following his lead. They headed back to the living room, but just as they were about to get to work, they found Max standing there and looking at the painting. "Max?"

"You made this May?" he asked.

"Well...we did yeah…" she answered, gesturing to both herself and Ash.

"Well, that makes more sense at least. Because it looks really nice." the younger boy shrugged.

"Gee, thanks…" May sighed, deciding not to comment on the backhanded compliment.

"I'm going to take a guess and say this is your brother?" Ash spoke up.

"Yeah…" May nodded. "Ash, this is Max. Max, this is Ash."

"Nice to meet you, Max." Ash said, offering his hand. Max accepted and May smiled a little, happy that Max was at least semi-behaving in front of Ash. However, no sooner had she thought about that, than her hopes were dashed.

"So you're the guy May won't stop talking about?" he asked.

"Huh?" Ash wondered.

"Max!" May gasped.

"What-ah!" the younger boy yelped as May grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the room.

"Are you trying to embarrass me?!" she hissed angrily, trying to keep her voice low so Ash couldn't hear in the other room.

"How was that embarrassing? You're totally hung up on him. We all know that." Max fired back.

"He has a girlfriend! We're just working on a project!" she growled.

"Oh…" he said, slowly realizing the situation.

"So don't talk like that!"

"Ok ok. Calm down." May sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose to try and calm down before going back out to see Ash. Taking a deep breath and swallowing some of his pride, Max then spoke up again. "Look, I was actually just waiting to ask you for some advice."

"You? You want my advice?" she asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah...see there's this girl in my grade...she's around my age...a-and I want to ask her out...but I don't know how…" he explained, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Oh...Max, I'm sorry but I can't help with that…" she informed him.

"Why not...? You give good advice." he pointed out.

"Not about love...I don't know anything about it really…" she sighed.

"May...please…I really want to hear what you think I should do…" he begged.

"Well…" she said, taking a deep breath. "Look Max...you're a great guy...and she'd be lucky to have you...don't let your fear get to the point that you're like me...take the chance and just talk to her…"

"You really think so…?"

"I know I sound like a hypocrite right now...but I just don't want you to end up like me…" she added, pulling him into a hug. Max hugged her back with a small smile.

"I hear ya…thanks May." Max replied. With a nod, May gave him one more squeeze and then let him go.

"You're welcome. For now, though, I have to go finish my work." she reminded him.

"Good luck sis." he offered, earning a small smile from May before she headed back to Ash in the living room, catching his attention. He had just finished painting the vines on their balcony when she returned.

"Sorry about that...I just needed to have a chat with my brother." she apologized, sitting down beside him.

"It's okay. Siblings, am I right?" he chuckled.

"Heh...yeah...thanks for finishing up the painting." she replied.

"No problem at all." he smiled, to which she responded with her own smile.

"I guess that just leaves the platform to build." she realized.

"Well, I suppose I'll take the lead on this one. Finally, that woodshop class I took is going to come in handy." he laughed, prompting May to giggle as well.


Later on that day, the two had worked together well to build their platform. With Ash taking the lead and May working hard under his direction, the two of them built a small, but sturdy platform that May could stand on during the performance. Once they were both satisfied, they propped up the painting against a wall and set the platform in front of it. They then took a step back to look at the whole thing altogether.

"Wow...It looks really good." May said with a small smile.

"It sure is. I think we did some great work." Ash added, returning her smile.

"Thank you, Ash...I had a really nice time today." she said, trying not to let on just how much she really enjoyed it. It had been so long since she'd done anything like this with anyone besides Dawn. And to do it with him of all people, that just made it even better.

"I should be thanking you May. I had a lot of fun too." he grinned, causing her to blush once again.

"Well um, maybe...we have time to run lines again?" she offered, even surprising herself with the offer. Ash wanted to take her up on it since he knew how huge it was that she was offering to read lines with him this time, but a quick check of the clock told him that he needed to get back home to Luna before dinner.

"I'd love to, but I gotta run home. Maybe you can come over tomorrow instead?" he counteroffered, surprising May.

"M-Me come over…? T-To y-your house...?" she asked, her eyes widening in shock as a whole new set of nerves settled into her. "A-Are you sure...that would be ok...?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. My Mom's always out at her restaurant and I think Luna took a real liking to you yesterday." he explained.

"Well...if you're sure…ok." she agreed after a bit of hesitation. "I...I'll just need to be picked up...I don't have a car…"

"No problem. I'll swing by and pick you up." he chuckled.

"Thanks, Ash…" she said softly.

"My pleasure. I'll see you tomorrow around say, 9 am?" he offered.

"I'll be ready…" she nodded.

"Alright. Bye May." he smiled, grabbing his things and heading outside.

"Bye…" she answered, watching him go to his car from the front door. She couldn't help but smile a little as he drove off. That didn't go nearly as badly as she thought it would.


Not long afterward, Ash returned home and after greeting his sister, he retreated to his room and lay on his bed, thinking over the events of the day. To his surprise, he still had the image of May in a towel running around his head. Even the image of his own girlfriend's body didn't stick with him this much. What was wrong with him? He knew one thing for sure. If Leaf knew what was running through his head, she'd kill him. Before he could even try to think about what could be causing this, however, he heard his sister's voice come from his open door.

"Ashy?"

"What's up...?" he asked.

"What are you doing up here?" she wondered.

"Just thinking…" he sighed.

"About what?"

"Honestly…about May…" he answered, knowing there was no point in trying to lie to her. And his confession made Luna smile hopefully.

"Really?"

"Yeah…" he nodded. "I had a lot of fun hanging out with her."

"That sounds nice. Why would you need to think about that?" she wondered.

"The thing is...I kinda saw her in a towel…" he admitted, visibly blushing at the memory.

"You what...? How did you...?"

"It wasn't on purpose...we both needed to shower after the paint war we had and we just both happened to come out of the bathrooms at the same time…" he explained.

"I see…" Luna nodded. She knew her brother wasn't the kind of person to actually try to sneak a peek at a girl that way, so she believed him.

"But now I…I can't get the image of her out of my head…" he sighed.

"So you do like her!" Luna smiled as she clasped her hands together excitedly.

"Huh?! No, I don't!" he protested, abruptly sitting up to face her.

"Ashy, come on. Can't stop thinking about her, remember? That's a classic sign of liking someone." she smiled.

"Luna, don't be ridiculous. May's nice and a lot of fun but I'm in love with Leaf. And even if somehow I did have a thing for May, I can't just break up with Leaf out of the blue." he fired back.

"...Are you sure that what you two have is love?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

"It just seems a lot more like...lust." she pointed out, forcing Ash to raise an eyebrow.

"It's not lust Luna. My feelings about Leaf won't change. You're just too young to understand." he said, brushing off her concerns.

"Ashy…" Luna frowned, hurt by Ash's forceful brush-off of her concerns. Ash seemed to take notice of her feelings however and sighed, knowing that he went a bit too far in his denials.

"I'm sorry Luna. But why are you so hung up about Leaf and me? What's going on?" he asked, pulling her over to sit on the bed with him.

"...Because she doesn't like me Ashy…" she admitted with a quiet voice.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You love me and take care of me...I know she sees that as time you could be spending with her instead…" Luna elaborated, looking down at her lap. She felt awful for feeling this way because she wanted her brother to be happy, but that often meant pushing her to the wayside. And that hurt her a lot.

"Luna…"

"I just…I just find it hard to believe that you'd really want to be with someone who's so jealous of your own sister…" she sighed. "I don't think you know her as well as you think you do Ashy…"

"Luna I…" he stammered, struggling to find a response. He had no idea that Luna had been feeling this strongly about the situation. He had always assumed the tension between her and Leaf was just from not really knowing each other. And of course, he trusted Luna's judgment, but how could he have been so wrong about Leaf?

"Please Ashy...at least think about it and watch how she behaves...you know I wouldn't ask you to do anything that I thought would make you unhappy…" the young girl begged her brother.

"I...I guess I can at least do that…" he finally conceded.

"That's all I'm asking for…" she nodded as she got back up and started heading for her room. Ash sighed to himself. He really didn't know how to handle this situation at all. How was he supposed to mend the relationship between his girlfriend and his sister? Could he even mend it? If he couldn't, would that mean he would have to choose between the two of them? He felt like his mind was going to explode and suddenly realized that he couldn't do this alone.

"I need some advice…" he muttered to himself, but even that realization raised questions. Who could he ask? Obviously, Leaf and Luna were out of the question. Gary wasn't the greatest when it came to giving advice, and that honestly went for most of the guys on his team. Just as he was starting to run out of options, however, he glanced over at his backpack and saw his copy of the school paper sticking out of the main pocket. As if lightning had struck, Ash got an idea and bolted over to his desk. He grabbed his computer and opened up his school email. He punched in Paper Princess's email address and started typing in a frenzy. After a quick final read-over, he took a deep breath and hit send, making the email disappear from his screen. "I hope this works…"


As luck would have it, almost at the very same time, May was opening up her own laptop to work on her column. She wanted to get it done early so that she could be on time for the Monday issue. As she opened up the Paper Princess email, she was surprised to see a new email popping up almost immediately. Most of the other questions had been sent in on Friday after people read her last column, so seeing one pop up on a Saturday surprised her.

"Oh...a new question?" she wondered as she opened the email. Once she did, however, her eyes widened in shock. "Th-That's…"

"Honey what's wrong?" her dad's voice suddenly asked her as he walked into the living room from the greenhouse.

"A-Ash just sent a question to Paper Princess…" she stammered, pointing to Ash's screen name on her monitor. Norman bent over and looked at the inbox over her shoulder.

"That's the boy you were working with today right? The one you have a-

"Yes!" she yelled, cutting him off before he could actually say it and embarrass her.

"Well, so what if he did? Paper Princess helps everyone right?" he pointed out.

"Y-Yeah she tries to anyway…" May timidly nodded.

"Well then make sure she gives him the best advice she can. Who knows what it could lead to." he chuckled as he headed into the other room, leaving May blushing profusely.

"Dad!" she yelled, clearly frustrated. She sighed to herself, alone again as she took a deep breath, trying to put herself in the mindset of Paper Princess rather than the anxious May, and then proceeded to begin reading his email.

"Hi, Paper Princess. I'm sorry to dump this problem in your lap but I don't have anywhere else to turn. I've got this girlfriend that I absolutely adore and I know she feels the same way about my sister just told me that she believes that my girlfriend doesn't like her. That my girlfriend is actually jealous of my sister because they both want my attention. I haven't really seen the tension she was talking about, but my sister isn't the kind of person who would make something like that up. I just don't know what to do, and I want to fix things for the two of them so that it doesn't get to the point where I have to choose between them. Because both of them mean a lot to me. So what do you think I should do?"

"Whoa…" May whispered, stunned by the question. Ash was really asking her to help him out with a serious problem. Even though she had only recently learned more about Ash's personal life, she could completely understand how this would be absolutely devastating to him. He had such a big heart and the idea that two people in his life that he cared about weren't getting along was probably devastating to him. May had to take a moment to think things over. She definitely didn't want to badmouth anyone at the school, despite what she knew about Leaf as a person, but she also didn't want to be dishonest with Ash and indirectly lead him to make a bad choice. Taking a deep breath and summoning all her experience as Paper Princess, May began typing her answer. After a few moments, once she was finished with his question, as well as a few others from other students, she sent all of them back to the school paper team and closed her laptop. It was out of her hands now. And only once they reached Monday would she know for sure if she did the right thing.

To be Continued...