A/N: I finally remembered this fic! Anyway, I'm hoping I can actually remember to keep updating this fic this November, especially since it's National Novel Writing Month. Anyway, without further ado, here's part 2!
Chapter 6: We're in this Together II
Ash flipped the page of the book he held in his hand. That Saturday was a particularly boring one, as Goh was visiting his family and Chloe wasn't there either. While he could call them, he didn't want to be a bother since it was their free time from school, and he didn't have much of a reason to call them in the first place without something in mind to do.
Pulling out his phone, he opened a video sharing website called "PokéTube" to watch recordings of Pokémon League battles like he would on TV back at home. There were currently no live battles being aired at that time as far as he was aware, since he was very particular about not missing battles unless they were being recorded by his mom. Before he could tap on a video that interested him, he got a sudden call notification from someone.
"Hello Sanelia! How's it going?" Ash answered the call and asked. Neither of them called each other much, but it was nice to hear from her every once in a while, especially if it was related to Pokémon.
"Hi Ash. I've read all the books in my house and now I have nothing to do. There was this interesting one on Pokémon care that my mom wrote, but I must have read it dozens of times by now." She explained. Ash thought she did seem like the type to read a lot, which was a much more reasonable observation than him being the type to read.
"Oh cool! Were you going to buy a new book? I think there was a bookstore somewhere here." During excursions with Goh, Ash made sure to take notes of buildings he saw that seemed interesting, especially for visiting, such as restaurants or anything related to Pokémon.
"Ahh, nah, I could probably… Oh, wait a second, you mentioned studying at home, right? Does that mean you have lots of books? Or was it online studying?" She asked with a growing excitement. Was she really that eager to read a book?
"Well, sometimes I read things online, but I started with a few books here that didn't look too thick." Sanelia giggled at this.
"Hehe, well would it be OK if I dropped by?" Ash scratched his cheek while thinking. Professor Cerise probably doesn't mind. Before he could reply, his stomach suddenly growled, which was apparently loud enough to be heard by Sanelia.
"Was that you? Did you eat breakfast yet?" It was close to 11 AM. It had been a while since he last ate, but lunchtime would arrive soon.
"O-oh yeah, I had plenty for breakfast, it's just been a while since. Did you want to grab some of those Meowth cookies again before you get here?" Ash asked. The sound of her giggling from Ash's stomach growling died down by the time he finished that sentence, though the line noticeably went quiet for a moment.
"Well, I don't mind, I just need to ask my mom for a bit more money." She said with less energy. Ash was sure she was speaking like when they first met, but he wasn't sure why.
"Oh alright! Well I'll head out now, if it turns out you don't have anything then I can buy one for you!" Before he could leap off of the couch, Sanelia suddenly shouted.
"W-wait! You don't have to do that, I'm sure my mom won't mind if I tell her I'll be meeting with a friend for a snack." She hastily explained. Ash got off the couch before he responded.
"Oh, well OK. I'll meet you at the same place where we first met, I'm sure the stall will still be there." Sanelia gave a sound of confirmation, before she set her phone down. Ash waited a bit before leaving the lab, getting ready with the set of clothes he planned to wear once he begins his Pokémon journey. Well, he thought about it, but the clothes he was wearing at that moment would probably suffice since he was sure they wouldn't be doing anything his travelling clothes were designed to withstand. That, and he would likely leave after she did as a result. The clothes in question was a simple white tee-shirt with a horizontal red stripe going through the chest section, while he wore navy-blue jeans.
"OK Ash, my mom gave me just enough Poké Dollars to buy the set of three cookies. How much can you buy?" She asked, as the sounds of rustling were barely audible through his phone. He put on the pair of running shoes he normally wore with his travelling clothes.
"My mom left me some money to spend when we came here, so I'll also take enough for the set of three cookies!" As he left the lab, he suddenly held his arm up to his eyes to adjust to the sudden sunlight.
"Alright, sounds good! I'll see you later, then." Ash said his goodbyes and hung up after everything was decided.
Luckily, the stall was still where it was where Ash and Sanelia bumped into each other for the first time. As he was walking up to the stall, Ash saw Sanelia already ordering her set of three cookies, in the middle of handing over the money before she turned her gaze to the boy she would be hanging out with. She waved to him with her free hand as he jogged the rest of the way.
"Hey Sanelia! I see you got here before me. Did you wait long?" Ash asked, as she shook her head.
"Oh not at all, I was just getting here." Though she was telling the truth, she left out the key detail of her running most of the way there since she lived a bit further from that particular stall. Thankfully for her, she finished catching her breath before he arrived.
"Okay, well let's take a seat on the bench after I get my cookies." He turned to the cashier and requested the cookies. As the lavender-haired individual took some of the finished cookies and placed them in a bag, he noticed the two kids were the same pair that bought cookies a while back.
"Oh, to be young again." He sighed in a teasing manner, though the boy didn't react in the same way as the girl. The magenta-haired woman rolled her eyes as she tossed more cookies into an oven.
"C'mon, we've got cookies to focus on here." She replied with annoyance. More cookies were finished shortly after, prompting the man to place them in a bag and hand it to Ash. As he thanked them, the two made their way to the nearby bench.
"So uh, Ash, I think there's a topic about Pokémon I'm interested in right now." Sanelia started before taking one of the warm cookies from the bag.
"Oh, is that why you were asking about the books back at the lab?" She was a little confused by that. Didn't he live in a house?
"Kind of. I want to learn about Pokémon Breeding, since I'm not very keen on battling." She took a bite into the cookie and savoured the sweetness in a subdued delight.
"Oh, cool! Well I think I saw a book about it, written by someone named Brock something…" At that, her eyes lit up.
"I know who that is! He's a popular Pokémon Breeder! He only started last year, but his writings have become more popular recently!" She explained with excitement.
"Wait a second, I recognize that name now, he's the Pewter City Gym Leader isn't he?" Ash asked. He supposed some Gym Leaders had hobbies on the side, but Brock becoming a popular Pokémon Breeder seemed hard to believe.
"Well he was, but he gave up his position to his younger brother, which he talked about in his book." She said, causing Ash to make a confused face.
"I see. So uh, how many books does this guy have?" Ash asked while taking one of the cooled cookies and biting it.
"Let's see… Well I have the first and second book at my house, but I'm not sure how many more he's written, so he must have at least two." She took out her Rotom Phone and searched for Brock's writings. Given his rising popularity, she didn't have to scroll very far down the Pika-Chugle page to see results about him.
"Oh here we go, he's written… 'a series of five books on Pokémon Breeding, covering the topics of nutrition and care', or so this page says." She put the phone into sleep mode again, before taking another cookie from her bag.
"I think the book I have at the lab was the fourth book, since it had a number 4 in the corner." He was going to text Professor Cerise about it until he noticed his phone was almost out of power.
"Oh yeah, were you planning on joining a club for Pokémon Breeding at school?" Ash asked his friend. She shook her head and giggled.
"Did you even read the entire list of clubs? There were no clubs for Pokémon Breeding." At this, he scratched his cheek in embarrassment.
"O-oh, my bad. So then, why not just form one?" He suggested simply. She looked down at her shoes and frowned.
"Err, I don't know, who would want to join one if there isn't one already formed?" She asked with a sigh. Ash placed a hand on his chin in thought, before snapping his fingers.
"Hey, you could always give it a shot anyway!" He gave her a grin, causing a smile to form on her face.
"Well, I guess I'll do just that. Um, by the way, which club are you joining?" She asked. Ash rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm joining the Floral Club once they accept me, apparently I have to win a battle against the club leader." At that, her smile softened a bit.
"Ohh, I see. Well if you end up losing somehow, you could always join my club if you want." He found himself scratching his cheek once more. Now wasn't the time to wonder why he was doing that so much though.
"Thank you, I appreciate the offer." She nodded, before taking her last cookie for a moment.
"Hey, do you want to save the last cookie for some milk at your house?" She asked, remembering what he told her when they first had those cookies. At this, he grinned and nodded.
"Sure!" They both got up from the bench, as Ash started walking down the road in the direction of the lab, with Sanelia following behind.
"Wait, you stay at Professor Cerise's laboratory?" Sanelia asked in surprise. Though, it's not like he was trying to hide it earlier.
"That's right. Really, that's the only reason I could study at home, since my mom hardly buys books that aren't romance drama novels or whatever." She chuckled lightly, with the initial surprise now gone.
As the two headed towards the main lobby, where the books were kept, Professor Cerise greeted the two while he left the lab.
"Oh Ash, you didn't tell me you were bringing a friend over for a visit." His voice wasn't stern or annoyed, he was just curious about it.
"Sorry 'bout that Professor, my friend Sanelia wanted to read some books on Pokémon Breeding here, do you have anything else like that besides the book I found by Brock Harrison?" He asked after explaining. Professor Cerise smiled and nodded.
"Yes, in fact we have the entire series by Brock on one of the shelves, I just can't remember which one. I'm sure you'll be able to find it though." He waved at the two before leaving the lab somewhere.
As the two entered the main lab, they immediately split up to search for the books among the lower shelves they could reach. It didn't take long during the search to locate the first and third books, especially since the latter was already on the couch Ash was sitting on earlier that day, but the rest were proving rather tricky.
"Any luck with the other books, Ash?" Sanelia asked, as she continued sifting through the shelves she had to tippy-toe to reach. Just as he was about to report, he stumbled upon the fourth book.
"Oh, I found the fourth book! One more to go!" He ran towards the couch and placed the book on the pile.
"Ah, I think this one's the fifth and final book!" She took the book carefully, being sure that the movements didn't disturb the rest of the haphazardly placed books on the same shelf too much. They were awkwardly placed in a way that they leaned on each other.
"Since you've already read the first two books, I'll take them and read them while you start on the other three." She nodded as the two took their respective books and sat on the couch together. Ash's book was on the basics of caring for your Pokémon, as well as some basic recipes for Pokémon food to suit the needs of most Pokémon, though there was mention of some Types requiring specialized food for certain purposes. Meanwhile, the book Sanelia had was on more advanced topics, like caring for certain kinds of Pokémon, as well as talking about training methods and which ones are right for your Pokémon.
"Hey Ash, wasn't there going to be a test next Monday in Mrs. Lottie's class?" Sanelia asked, lowering her book to peek at Ash. He lowered his book too as he made a thinking expression.
"Uhh, what was it for again?" He asked.
"I think it was about the effects of food flavours and preferred flavours, or something…" She noticed while reading that one of the books in the series might go over the same topic.
"The book I'm reading mentioned something like that that sounded like what the teacher was talking about that one time." Ash recalled. The book stated that Pokémon who don't have any flavour preferences may still dislike a flavour if it's intense enough, just in a different manner than another Pokémon's disliked flavour, it seemed to tie into a Pokémon's Nature in weird ways.
"Oh! Let's go over what the books say about Pokémon food, it should count as studying, right?" Sanelia closed the book she was reading and placed it on her lap, as Ash nodded.
"Sounds right to me! Um, this book says that even Pokémon without flavour preferences can dislike the taste of something if it's strong enough, just in a different uh, way from a Pokémon Nature's disliked flavour, or something." He scratched his head while trying to articulate the passage in the book, as Sanelia took her Rotom Phone out and opened the notes app to record the information.
Ash continued to seek out pages that talked about Pokémon food and flavours, as Sanelia moved her book to the table and scooted closer to Ash to see the book better. Immediately he noticed that certain things weren't talked about in their class yet, like how in some cases the actual flavour of the food matters less depending on the presence of the Pokémon's preferred and disliked flavours compared to the other flavours, at least according to Brock's testing.
"You know, I think I'm starting to see part of why Pokémon Breeding seems like fun." Ash said, as he finished copying Sanelia's notes to his own Rotom Phone. A few hours had passed since they started reading the books.
"Yeah, caring for a Pokémon is very involved, but I think understanding the difficult stuff helps in other areas of Pokémon training, at least that's what my Mom says in her book." She replied with a sheepish smile. Before Ash could say something, Sanelia's phone gave a text notification, prompting her to read the text.
"Goodness, it's time for me to head home, I didn't think we'd be studying for so long." It was close to the evening now, as Ash stood up from the couch.
"Uh, do you want me to walk you part of the way home?" Ash asked while scratching his cheek. She smiled at his offer and shook her head, as she stood up as well.
"That's OK, it isn't getting dark out just yet. Thanks for the offer though!" Ash gave a nod in understanding, as he took the books that were on the table to put them back on the shelves.
Ash decided he'd see her out anyway, which she didn't mind. As she stepped down the stairs and left the lab, she stopped and turned to Ash.
"See you at school! Let's ace that test!" Ash nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. Thanks to the impromptu study session, he was confident he'd do well on the test.
That night, Ash was going over the notes he and Sanelia wrote about the upcoming test. Out of curiosity, he retrieved his Rotom Phone and decided to text Chloe, after checking if she was online in the first place anyway. Once he reached her in the list of contacts, he threw all caution out of the window and began texting.
"Are you awake?" He typed, pressing the "send" button. Not long after it was sent, he got a reply.
"I just sat down on my bed. What's wrong?" Came the reply. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time he texted her, though it wasn't really an emergency.
"Nothing happened, I just wanted to talk to you about something."
"Oh, I thought something happened, this is the first time you've texted me." He felt a little guilty about not texting her before, but up to that point most of their talking was in-person anyway.
"Sorry about that. Anyway, I was wondering if you studied for the test."
"Well I tried to, but things happened in my home and I didn't get to study much."
"Sorry to hear that. :("
"It's OK. Did you study? You don't seem like the type who would do heavy reading." He chuckled at the message.
"True, but I studied with a friend, so I think I'll pass the test by at least a little bit."
"That's good to hear. Wait, you made a friend besides Goh and I?" All of a sudden he felt like he should've omitted mention of a friend.
"Yeah! She's Sanelia from our class, she came over today."
"Oh, I think I remember her, she was the one with the Seel, right? She seems nice."
"Yeah, but she's kind of shy. I think you and Goh would be good friends with her though!"
"Probably. Anyway, I'm getting sleepy, so I'm going to go to bed. GN." As soon as Ash finished reading the message, he yawned.
"Me too. Sleep well!" As he pressed "send", he put the phone into sleep mode and tried to enter sleep mode himself.
That following Sunday, Ash and Goh went on another small expedition for Professor Cerise just outside the city towards Diglett's Cave. Apparently there were complaints of noise in that surrounding area, and Professor Cerise had an idea of what was causing it, and sent the two boys to confirm his suspicions.
"I heard this cave connects Routes 2 and 11." Goh said, as Ash read a nearby sign that conveyed that information rather clearly. As they approached the mouth of the cave, a faint rumbling could be felt. The closer they came to the mouth, the rumbling grew louder.
"Hmm, I think I might know what all that rumbling is." Goh mused, as Ash nodded.
"Maybe it's that Snorlax that has been snoring." Ash said, pointing to the huge Snorlax laying nearby.
"I don't think it was. It didn't sound much like snoring, to me." Goh reasoned. As if to support his point, the Snorlax made a snoring sound, which noticeably didn't resemble the previous rumbling very much. Sure, it was pretty loud, but it didn't make the ground shake as much by comparison.
Ash rubbed the back of his neck with a light chuckle. "I guess it wasn't it… Sorry about that, Snorlax!" He yelled at it apologetically. In response, Snorlax rolled away and down the hill, stopping right in front of a tree bearing fruit.
"Come to think of it, maybe it was contributing to the noise problem… But the other problem still remains." Goh pointed out. The two resumed approaching the cave, before a lone Diglett popped out from the dirt right in front of them.
"Woah! Hello Diglett." Ash greeted the Pokémon, though it didn't look very happy. As Ash was greeting the Pokémon, Goh scanned the Pokémon with the Pokédex app.
"Diglett, the Mole Pokémon, a Ground type. Though sometimes a pest to farmers, if it digs through a field, it leaves the soil perfectly tilled and ideal for planting crops." It stated.
Before the two could say anything, the Diglett burrowed back underground and noticeably headed back into the cave, guessing from the mound of dirt that followed towards the cave.
"I wonder what it's up to?" As if to answer Goh's question, more and more Diglett burrowed towards the two and popped out. One by one they appeared from the ground, and they each shared a similar expression of disdain.
"Dig Diglett, lett Diglett!" The biggest Diglett in front said, motioning towards the cave. A few of the Diglett burrowed back underground and retreated into the cave, before popping right back out inside of it.
"I guess we should follow 'em…" Ash said, as they headed inside the cave. Surprisingly, it was dimly lit courtesy of the lamps lining the walls of the cave. As the two ventured deeper into the cave, they started seeing graffiti on the walls, though bizarrely it was illegible. The two were stopped by the big Diglett from earlier, who motioned its body towards the "artwork" that was sprayed on the cave's walls.
"Diglett dig! Dig dig lett!" It fumed, shaking its head in disapproval.
"Ohh, I think I understand now! Someone put graffiti on the walls, and it's bothering the wild Diglett!" Goh said, piecing together the situation with the context clues given.
"But we can't clean the graffiti without water. Maybe we should let Officer Jenny know about the graffiti?" Ash wondered. Diglett frowned a little, but accepted the terms with a nod. Goh took out his Rotom Phone and captured photos of the graffiti just in case.
The boys left the cave, with Goh calling the Vermilion City police station. He attempted to explain to the person that picked up, who was Officer Jenny, and she let him know they would investigate the situation further. As it turns out, the Diglett were wary of people that entered the cave and were causing the ruckus that people complained about.
After a few minutes, Officer Jenny arrived at the cave on her motorcycle with a few Poké Balls on her belt.
"Good afternoon boys, one of you called about the Diglett situation?" She inquired, as Goh gave her confirmation.
"It was me. I took these pictures of the problem inside the cave." He showed her the photos he took of the graffiti.
"I think I have an idea of how to handle this, now. Thanks boys." She thanked the two with a bow before getting off of her motorcycle and entering the cave with one of the Poké Balls in hand. The Diglett from before seemed to be following her, considering the trail of raised dirt that followed her.
"Let's tell Professor Cerise what we saw!" Goh said, as they headed straight for the lab. As the two were running back to the lab, Ash saw Sanelia out of the corner of his eye and slowed to a walk.
"Hey Goh, I'll meet you back at the lab!" He shouted at Goh, who looked back with slight confusion.
"Alright! See ya!" He shouted back, before turning a corner. As Ash came to a stop, he turned back towards where he thought he saw Sanelia only to see that she was running towards him.
"Hi Ash!" She greeted him with a smile. He returned the smile and the greeting as she came to a stop in front of him.
"Hi Sanelia! How's it going?" He asked casually. She took a few moments to respond due to needing to catch her breath.
"I was just out for a walk. How about you? You looked like you were busy with something." She replied. He scratched his cheek and nodded.
"I guess so, but Goh will be able to handle it."
"If you don't mind me asking, what were you two doing?" She asked. He was about to answer her question, but he noticed a leashed Yamper coming up from a corner behind her, with a familiar face following the Yamper.
"Uhh, it was about Diglett's Cave near Route 11. It's being taken care of now though, we just wanted to take a look for ourselves." He explained. Before the conversion could continue, his eyes met with Chloe's, who had a surprised look.
"Hi Chloe!" Ash called out to her, which caused Sanelia to turn in the direction he was looking at.
"Oh, so that's Chloe?" Sanelia asked.
"Hi Ash, and hi Sanelia I presume?" Chloe greeted the two. Sanelia nodded and took steps back towards Ash until they stood next to each other.
"Y-yes. Nice to meet you, Chloe." She extended a hand, which Chloe took and shook.
"It's nice to meet you too. Ash told me about you yesterday, and you seem nice, at least guessing by the way he talked about you." Her tone was neutral, and she had a calm expression, but somehow that made Ash sweat slightly. This may become difficult.
"Oh, really now? You seem nice too." Sanelia smiled, mostly because of how Ash talked about her.
"Thank you," Ash still felt a little uneasy about their meeting, but he didn't understand why he felt that way. "By the way, have you studied for the test that's coming up?" Chloe asked. All of a sudden Ash understood why he felt uneasy about the current conversation.
"Th-that's right! I'm fairly sure we'll pass the test tomorrow." Sanelia answered. Chloe raised her eyebrow in amusement.
"'We'? Are you implying you studied with someone?" She asked. Now Sanelia was starting to sweat. Just then, Ash butted in.
"Chloe, didn't I mention that part last night? I thought I did anyway." Chloe's cheeks became pink.
"I-I guess you did, I must have forgotten, haha…" She laughed lightly.
"Say, why don't we all go to the lab? Chloe told me she wasn't able to study yesterday, so maybe we could share the notes we wrote?" Ash suggested, however Chloe gave the two an apologetic look.
"Sorry, I'm kinda taking Yamper for a walk right now... Also, sorry about all that, Sanelia." Chloe apologized. Ash was confused about why Chloe was apologizing to Sanelia in particular, but decided to ignore it and shrug.
"That's too bad. If it's OK with Sanelia, I can send you pictures of those notes." Ash turned to Sanelia expectantly.
"O-oh, yeah it's fine with me." She gave Ash the permission he was hoping for.
"Thank you Ash, and Sanelia. Come on, Yamper." She said, looking down at the puppy who ended up taking a nap. "Oh, sorry Yamper." She knelt down and shook the puppy awake.
"I should probably head to the lab now, maybe Goh was notified about Diglett's Cave by now." As he said that, he got a text notification from Goh about precisely what he just talked about.
"Ah, I was right! Well, see you two at school!" He said after checking his phone and placing it back in his pocket before running back to the direction of the lab.
As Chloe headed back home with Yamper, she thought about her earlier encounter with Ash and Sanelia. For some reason, she got this jealous feeling at seeing the two of them together, but she was annoyed by that feeling since Sanelia came off as a good person to her. She stopped for a moment, confusing Yamper who looked at her with a tilted head.
"Oh, sorry Yamper, I was just thinking about something…" She trailed off, resuming her walk home. She really did hope she could get along with Sanelia, since she didn't have any friends besides Ash and Goh, let alone female friends.
Yamper simply barked and gave her a goofy look.