I may be the only one who still celebrates Pokéshipping Week these days, but regardless, here is my fifth consecutive Pokéshipping Week oneshot, which also marks my fifth year of writing under the name Acanthus Addams. It's possible that this will be the last one of these that I write, so I want to say thank you to everyone who has ever read and enjoyed my Pokémon stories. I also haven't forgotten about Hidden Power, despite how much it looks like I have, so if the remaining fans of that story are both reading this, I promise the next chapter will come at some point before the apocalypse.

ID of the Beholder

Dear Ash,

Thanks so much for inviting me tonight. I had a really great time. Knowing you, you won't be awake by the time I have to leave in the morning, so this letter will have to do until we see each other again.

Well, where do I start. You know this already, but I'm so, so, SO proud of you. It took almost half your life, but you finally did it; you're a pokémon master! When your mom told me the news, I actually cried…because I wanted the other guy to win! Haha, kidding, of course it's because I was happy for you. Guess I can't exactly use my old nickname for you anymore, huh?

And congratulations to you too, Pikachu! I've left you a few ketchup packets in the fridge – just don't eat them all at once or you'll make yourself ill, okay?

We didn't really get much of a chance to talk at the party, Ash, but even if we had, I don't think I could've said all I wanted to say. These last few months, there's been so much on my mind, and even though I'm terrified of losing the friendship we have, especially since you're kind of famous now…I just feel like it's now or never for me to tell you what I've kept hidden all this time.

I love you, Ash Ketchum. I've loved you since before I was even old enough to fully understand love. Those days we spent travelling together, I think about them every day, and it only makes me miss you that much more. Remember how people would tease us on our journey? Well, for me at least, it's been true all along. You really are everything to me.

I don't expect you to feel the same way, and if I don't hear back from you or Delia, I guess I'll have my answer. But just know that whatever you choose, I'll always be there for you, just as I always have been.

Take care, Ash. And make sure Brock behaves himself too. I hope to see you again soon.

XXXX

Rousing from a heavy slumber at just after 11am, a revelation like this was the last thing the newly christened pokémon master had expected to be met with. Eyes still watery from the sleepiness, he blinked his way through the letter once again, and when he had finished, only a solitary word passed through his head and out of his mouth:

"Huh…"

"Is that you, Ash?" came an affectionate voice from the floor below. "You just missed Clemont and Bonnie; they told me to give you one final congratulations before they left!"

Ash looked over the banister, his black hair falling messily over his face. "Uh, thanks, Mom," he absentmindedly said.

Pattering downstairs, Ash ignored the stinging of his bare feet on the kitchen tiles and nodded a tired greeting to each of the men sitting around the table: Brock and Gary at the far end, Tracey to their right, Max next to him, and Cilan adopting a peculiar side-saddle pose on the seat closest to Ash.

"Sleep well?" Brock said with good-natured sarcasm.

"Mom still makes me give Misty my bed when you guys stay over," he grumbled.

"I'd take the guest room floor over some forest clearing any day," reminisced Tracey, chuckling.

The gentlemanly Cilan adjusted his green bowtie. "Last night's soiree was truly magnificent, was it not?"

"I'll say," Gary concurred, "but man, my head's killing…"

"Didn't I warn you not to drink too much?" Delia Ketchum tutted at him. "You really are incorrigible, Gary Oak."

"Pikapi!" squeaked a blurry yellow shape in the middle of the table. Ash hurriedly blinked yet more sleep out of his eyes just in time to see Pikachu bounding into his fumbling hold.

"Where's everyone else?" he asked while tousling his faithful companion's soft fur. "Are you guys the only ones left?"

Tracey nodded. "Most people left quite early to catch their flights. I'll be heading back soon too."

Amidst this colourless chitchat, the young teenage Max found his bespectacled gaze wandering around the room, only stopping when he caught sight of the folded slip of paper in Ash's hand.

"Hey, whatcha got there?" he probed with ramping curiosity.

"Oh yeah!" Ash acknowledged, unfolding the letter and holding it out to them. "I found this pushed under my door just now. Anyone know anything about it?"

The whole room squashed in close to take a look. By their individual expressions, Ash could just about gauge the speed at which they were each reading. But by the end, the young man was met with only one look, multiplied by six – utter disbelief.

"No way…" Brock mouthed.

"Oh…my…" panted Delia on the verge of tears. "Is this what I think it is…? Oh Brock, I was afraid this day would never come!"

"Huh?" Ash blinked. "What are you talking ab—"

"HA!"

True to type, Gary had neither the desire nor the means to contain himself. "So, she finally did it, huh. I'm almost proud of ya, Ashy-boy! Good timing too; I had half a mind to break me off a piece of that myself if one of you didn't make a move soon."

Ash, already confused, was even more so by the sight of Delia and Brock each pinching one of Gary's ears as if he were a child.

"Be very grateful he has no idea what that means," Brock snarled. Delia simply huffed in embarrassment.

Choosing to ignore this, Ash scanned the paper another time. "So…someone is in love with me?" he thought aloud. Then he thought some more. "Someone who was at the party last night? But why didn't they sign their name?"

Max leant towards Tracey. "Does he seriously not know who it is?"

"I'd better go check on her later," he whispered back. "In case this escalates."

"What do you think, Pikachu?" Ash said, holding the paper up to him. Pikachu sniffed at it for a fraction of a second and leapt out of his trainer's arms in excitement.

"Pikachupi!"

"Pika-chu-pi?" Ash repeated. "That sounds kinda familiar…you must be saying we've got to get to the bottom of this, right, buddy?"

While Ash nodded confidently to himself, Pikachu smeared a paw down the length of his face and puffed an exasperated little sigh. Cilan stood up, producing a brown cap and magnifying glass from seemingly out of nowhere and beaming widely.

"Why, Ash, as both a detective and a love connoisseur, I am honour-bound to assist you in this plight! We'll sleuth out even the subtlest of flavours in this tongue-tickling broth, that I can promise you!"

The two then bolted upstairs, proceeding to leap in and out of every room with a slightly unsettling vivacity. The more mature of the bunch simply hung back and exchanged identical glances with each other to the repeated soundtrack of "Nope!", "Not this one!" and "No clues here!".

"Man, he's a real idiot, isn't he," smirked Gary.

"Should we just tell him?" Tracey suggested.

Brock, however, having had to deal with the boy longer than anyone besides his mother, wasn't so quick to jump to such an easy conclusion. "Might be best to let this one run its course," he wisely said. "Don't you think, Mrs. Ketchum?"

"I'll trust your judgement here, Brock," Delia nodded. "I just hope it's resolved before one of them gets hurt…"

"Well, well, a love letter, is it?" Professor Oak eyed through his reading glasses. "My, it seems only yesterday you were a ten-year-old boy standing here in his pyjamas about to pick his first pokémon. How time flies, eh?"

"Ehehe," Ash fidgeted amid Max's juvenile sniggering.

"Oh hey, Gramps," Gary waved as he and Brock entered the laboratory. "Tracey told me to tell you he'll be out of town till tomorrow."

"Ah, very good," the kindly researcher said. "So, Ash, I trust you've given her your response?"

"What do you mean, Professor?" Ash asked. "I don't even know who wrote it!"

"Uhh…" Oak stammered, until a couple of nods from the men over Ash's shoulder told him to play along. "Well, in that case, how can I help you, dear boy?"

"I wondered if you had some sort of machine that could scan for fingerprints and stuff. You know, like on TV! It'd help me find out who this girl is, for sure."

"If it even is a girl," Max tittered behind his hand.

"Eh?!" Ash gasped, a cold blue tinge outlining his eyes. "Wh-What are you saying?!"

Though chuckling along with the joke, Brock shook his head. "I think we can assume that much," he said. "Look at the loopy handwriting. Only Cilan here could outdo that kind of calligraphy."

The elegant man gave a small bow. "I'm flattered, Brock, but rest assured that my feelings for Ash are strictly platonic."

"Platonic?" Ash puzzled. "What does…"

"Ahem," the professor coughed lightly. "I'm afraid I'm just a pokémon researcher, Ash; I've no need for forensic technology or anything like that. Perhaps we should start smaller, hmm? Do you remember all the girls who were at the party?"

"Oh, er, sure." He began to count on his gloved fingers. "There was Lillie, Mallow, Lana, May, Dawn, Misty and Daisy…um, who else…oh yeah, Serena, Dawn's mom, May's mom, Iris, Alexa, Bonnie—"

"It's not Bonnie!" Max blurted out – entirely involuntarily it would seem, by the looks of how red his face grew thereafter.

"How can you be so sure, Max?" Gary teased.

"I just know, okay!" He folded his arms and exhaled roughly. "Oh, and it's definitely not my sister either. Although…" – he quickly read the letter again – "she did cry when she found out Ash had won the Manalo Conference, so that's part's—"

"A clue!" Cilan exclaimed. "So, May is a suspect. The plot thickens!"

Professor Oak cleared his throat again. "Well, at the very least, we can rule out a few here. Your friends' mothers for starters, ehehe. And according to the letter, this person was informed by your mother of your Pokémon League victory, so I'm right in saying it's not anyone who was there with you at the time, yes?"

It took a few seconds for Ash to piece this together. "So…it can't be Lana, Lillie or Mallow, right?"

"Also, if I may, the paper it's written on seems uncommonly ornate. If I move it about like so…"

As he rocked the page from side to side in his hand, a whole array of bevelled printing shimmered up at them in the lab's generous lighting. Ash's eyes were naturally drawn to the shapes of pokémon, picking out repeated images of staryu, seel, goldeen, gyarados…

"Hey, cool!" he cried. "They're all water pokémon too. Maybe the printer messed up."

"You know," Brock chimed in, his first attempt to rein in some of Ash's more unenviable quirks, "my brother Forrest uses gilded paper like this back at my family's gym."

Max pushed his large spectacles up his nose. "Hey, so does my dad! His has normal-type pokémon all over it. Cilan must have some too, right?"

"There's got to be a connection here somewhere…" pondered Ash in deep thought.

"Ugh, this is painful," groaned Gary. "Why are we doing this? We all know it's R-ummpphff!"

"Now, now, don't give the game away, Gary," the professor whispered as he removed his hand from over his grandson's mouth.

"Water pokémon…" Ash continued to contemplate. "Oh, I know just the place! Come on, everyone!"

The whole group bade farewell to the professor, then followed their excitable friend back outside into the sun-streaked Pallet Town pastures. Watching them through the huge bay window of the lab, Oak let out an amused sigh.

"Ah, to be young again. That boy sure does love to overcomplicate things."

"Oh yeah, I just remembered something," Ash said as they walked along. "Back in Kalos, I think Serena had kind of a crush on me."

"Interesting," Gary remarked, trying his damnedest to act like he saw the point of this whole charade. "And you figured that out all by yourself?"

"Well, Clemont and Bonnie kind of explained it to me recently. Plus she kissed me right before she left on her own journey."

"She did?!" Brock gasped. "Wow, that's…something. Still, she seemed pretty inconspicuous last night. Maybe she got it all out of her system?"

Gary grinned cockily. "Ain't easy being a heartbreaker, is it, Ashy-boy? I tell ya, it's a good thing we're not chasing down every girl who sends me a love letter, or we'd be at this for months!"

"Why do girls always go for rich assholes…" Brock grunted under his breath.

"Oh, we're here already!" announced Ash. Barely had the group been walking for twenty minutes, yet the pokémon trainer and his Pikachu were perfectly content to set themselves down by the narrow river at which they'd just arrived.

"Ah, what a beautiful explosion of aqueous splendour!" cut Cilan through the stillness with his signature culinary parlance. "The aromas, the textures…a dish of sheer divinity!"

"Er, sure, buddy," Gary smiled falsely. "I remember this place. Ash used to fall in all the time when we were kids."

"Speaking of which," Brock began, "Ash, have you really brought us here just for water pokémon?"

Ash looked over. "Well, mostly. I mean, Pikachu and I nearly drowned in this river, but still, I get a really good feeling whenever I come here. Crazy, huh?"

"It's not that crazy when you think about it," Brock smiled. "Don't you remember who saved you that day?"

"LOOK AT ALL THOSE GOLDEEN!"

Naturally, rather than even consider such a question, Ash's attention was quickly stolen away by the excitable Max's outburst from the riverside. Brock sighed as he watched them enraptured by the large school of orange fish pokémon that passed by.

"It would seem this place has some special significance for Ash," Cilan mused. "Perhaps it is the key to unravelling this mystery!"

"You're only encouraging him, you know," Gary said flatly. "I get that you haven't known him as long as us, but surely even you can tell who that damn letter's from?"

"I fear so, yes," he said to their surprise. "Ash carries many keepsakes from his old friends. Last night, I immediately recognised the likeness of his favourite fishing lure. I must say, the little thing does her beauty nary a shred of justice!" His green quiff bobbed with the sagging of his head. "Alas, I simply cannot resist a good mystery – even when I spoil the ending for myself. Now, to play Giratina's advocate, there was one part that piqued my curiosity. Ash, may I see the letter again?"

The two youngest members rejoined the group, and the infamous note was unearthed once more. "'Make sure Brock behaves himself too'," Cilan quoted. "Perhaps you'd care to elaborate?"

"Oh, I can attest to this," Max smugly answered. "When Brock sees a pretty girl, he—"

"WELL, HELLO-O-OOO!"

With what would appear to be eerily good timing – or bad, depending on one's perspective – a slender young woman around Ash's age wandered into the group's little nostalgic haven, and Brock raced over to her immediately, his tanned hands cupping hers.

"My name's Brock, a pokémon doctor-in-training, and do I have just the cure for you!"

The girl freed her hands and tugged irritably at a strand of brown hair. "Erm, I was just going to ask for a battle…?"

"Say no more, for surviving this long without each other has already been a battle for the ages! Let us declare a ceasefire here and now with our undying l—"

"You." She pointed directly over his shoulder. "With the pikachu. Two-on-two sound good?"

"Sure you don't want to battle me instead?" Gary winked with a flick of his spiky hair.

The woman suddenly turned rather shy. "O-Oh, um, well, n-now that you mention it—"

"Two-on-two it is!" Ash interrupted, already in his trademark backwards-capped battle pose. Meanwhile, Max clamped down hard on Brock's ear and began to drag him towards the river.

"Time to cool off!" he shouted in accompaniment. When met with a bemused look from Cilan, he smirked and added, "Little trick I learned from Ash's secret admirer."

"You lost?!"

Brock, Gary, Cilan and Max all watched in awe as Ash was forced to hand over the customary reward money to the girl before she sauntered smugly away.

"You win some, you lose some," he shrugged. "No big deal, right, Pikachu?"

"Chu," his battle-worn companion sleepily replied.

"But…but you're a Pokémon League champion!" Gary persisted. "You shoulda wiped the floor with her!"

When Ash just smiled in response, Brock moved closer, his already narrow eyes narrowing further. "Ash, you're shaking," he said. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Just the excitement, Brock!" he waved away. "Anyway, where to next?"

He made off down the road without waiting for their answer, leaving them to look soberly around at one another.

"I've got a feeling this will get out of hand soon," Brock remarked. As he said this, the pokégear in his pocket vibrated with such intensity that it caused him to jump on the spot.

"Hello?" he spoke into the flipped-up screen.

"H-Hey, Brock," a shaky voice came through the speakers. The next second, the owner of said voice appeared on the screen, more than a little dishevelled.

"Tracey?" he said. "What the heck happened to you?"

"What do you think happened to me!" the usually docile man spat. "She lives with my girlfriend, you know! I th-thought it'd be safe if I just asked how she was doing…"

Against his better judgement, Brock felt a small grin try to fight its way onto his face, and for his poor battered friend's sake, he fought even harder to suppress it. Keeping Tracey's black bangs in place was a bandage in place of his usual headband, and along with a blackened left eye, numerous plasters were dotted around his face and neck. Perhaps only because of the sheer absurdity of this whole situation, the sight did appear darkly comical.

"Whoa-hoh! Someone really did a number on you, eh, Trace?" guffawed Gary, the tactful approach not having even occurred to him. "No need to ask how she's handling it, then."

"You wouldn't be laughing if you were here," he groaned back at him. "I should have just let sleeping growlithes lie…"

"Don't worry, Tracey," Brock stated. "I think he's getting closer. And if the worst comes to the worst, we'll just have to tell him."

"Well whatever you're doing, do it quickly, okay?" Tracey looked behind him, startled by a peculiar loud noise. "I've just got here, but I don't know how much more I can take of this…"

A few quick goodbyes were exchanged between the group, and the pokégear lid snapped shut in Brock's hand. Shrugging, he gestured for them to catch up with their dense little companion, who was undoubtedly confusing himself more by the minute.

Ash scratched a sprig of hair sticking out of his hat. "It's real annoying we couldn't ask any of the girls about this before they left."

"That's what happens when you don't drag your lazy ass out of bed until nearly midday, Ashy-boy," Gary cockily shrugged.

"That, and I wager they wouldn't be quite as patient as we're being," Brock sniggered.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"So, how's it looking so far?" he changed the subject. "Think you've made any progress?"

"With what?" Ash casually replied. An incredulous look from the whole group then snapped him back to reality. "Oh right, hehe, my bad."

"You sure you're feeling alright?" Gary queried. "You're acting even dumber than usual all of a sudden."

In the little silence that followed, Max noticed Cilan fiddling with a brightly coloured plastic board of sorts, similar to a children's game. There were little hinged tabs all over it, which, on closer inspection, each featured a picture of one of the girls who'd attended last night's party. And the keen-eyed boy was quick to notice that a few of them were already face-down.

"So, there's Mallow, Lana, Lillie…" Cilan muttered, flicking down their respective tabs, "Caroline, Johanna…are we discounting May, then?"

"Yes, yes, a million times yes!" Max grimaced, holding his head. "Eww, Ash and my sister…" His demeanour then mellowed instantly. "Oh, and…Bonnie too…right?"

Two more flicks followed. Gary glimpsed over their heads at Cilan's bizarre pet project.

"You're a real odd psyduck, you are," he sneered, shaking his head. Strangely, this remark made Ash's own head shoot upwards.

"Psyduck?" he repeated. "Where?"

The group were now trekking through the thick, unspoilt shrubbery of Route 1, passing newbie trainers and low-level pokémon aplenty. Ash's erratic and almost zealous energy was beginning to show in the steadily deepening red around his cheeks, and, to save the poor boy a thinking-induced brain haemorrhage, this was when Gary swiftly decided to take the reins of this pitiful exercise.

"Okay, pay attention, Ash," he instructed with letter in hand. "Firstly, the tone of this thing is really flirtatious."

"But…it's a love letter?" Ash murmured blankly.

"I mean flirtatious in a teasing, antagonistic way. There aren't many of your party guests who'd deliberately try to wind you up like this. I would know – I talked to all the girls there…"

Ash nodded to himself as this sank in. "Good point," he said. "Hey, Iris teases me a lot, right, Cilan?"

"That she does," the man to his right concurred. "A valuable piece of evidence. But she's certainly not your only friend with whom you enjoy a healthy bit of quarrelling."

Ash thought for a moment. "Hmm, no one else really comes to mind…"

"Jeez," Gary sighed in a hushed voice. "Fine, fine, moving on. So, what can we tread water with next AAAAAAAHHH!"

In a space of a few seconds, the soft ground gave way below their feet, sending everyone toppling down into a roughly circular pit too high to climb out of. It was a trap they were all woefully familiar with by now – yet it seemed that after all these years, they still weren't any the wiser to it.

"HAHA! Nine yoirs an' eight regions, an' I ain't never gonna get tired o' seein' that!"

The owner of such an abrasive voice popped its short feline figure over the top of the pit, soon followed by two more humanoid shapes.

"My my, Jessie, it looks like we've caught ourselves a whole smorgasbord of brats!" gushed the blue-haired man dramatically.

"Team Rocket!" Ash exclaimed, seconded by a "Pi-pikachu!" from Pikachu.

"You're right, James," Jessie observed. Her harsh gaze landed on Brock. "And look, if it isn't the older twerp! Didn't think we'd run into you again so soon."

"Huh?" Max pondered. "You've tangled with these creeps recently, Brock?"

"Yeah, when Misty and I visited Ash in Alola a few months back. They haven't changed a bit."

Gary raised an eyebrow. "A few months? You know, Ash, your mystery girl said in the letter that…wait, the letter! Where is it?"

"You mean this?" James smirked, picking up the folded parchment at his feet. As he scanned through it, his mocking expression faded with each passing line. "Good gracious…"

"No! Don't read that!" cried Ash, blushing intensely.

"Hoo mama, now dat's some juicy stuff!" Meowth cackled. "Guess I owe ya ten bucks, Jimmy Boy."

"Our favourite twerp and twerpette together at last," sniffed James, pirouetting on the spot like a kirlia. "Did you ever think we'd see this come to pass, Jess?"

"Ugh, leave me out of this," the bitter woman huffed. "Love is a weak woman's game."

"What are you talking about?" Ash shouted. "Are you guys saying you know who wrote the letter?"

In an instant, all three of the Team Rocket trio stared down at him with looks that almost transcended the bounds of human bewilderment.

"What?!" Meowth howled. "Ya don' even…are ya serious?" He redirected his attention to the rest of the group. "Is he serious?"

When they all lethargically nodded, even Jessie found herself sharing in her teammates' laughter. "Tell you what then, twerp. How about you just hand over Pikachu and we'll tell you all you need to know about your little childhood sweetheart here?"

"No way!" he immediately rebutted.

"But I want to see your face when you find out!" wailed James. "Pleeeeeeease?" At that point, Cilan stepped forward, pokéball in hand.

"Alright, enough of this!" He threw the ball with impressive force. "Pansage, Vine Whip!"

Out burst the small green simian, and as instructed, he quickly snatched the love letter away with the powerful vines that extended from his back.

"Waaah!" they screamed. "Our bargaining chip!"

"Everybody climb up!" Cilan said as Pansage's vines then affixed themselves to the opening of the pitfall. When suddenly faced with the five pokémon trainers and realising they were quite outmatched, Jessie, James and Meowth began to backpedal, both in movement and in motive.

"N-Now, wait a minute, twerps, l-let's talk this over before you do anything rash…" Jessie faltered through a guiltily toothy grin.

"Mudkip, Water Gun!"

Max loosed his prized little starter pokémon, who shot a sizable blast of water straight at Team Rocket. Gary then took out a pokéball of his own.

"Help him out, Blastoise! Hydro Pump!"

As soon as the huge gun-toting tortoise let out his humungous attack, the water jets combined with such power that the unprepared threesome were sent flying up into the sky.

"We didn't even get a chance to fight back!" Jessie moaned in mid-air.

"Never mind that!" James retorted. "Now I won't get to see the start of the two twerps' storybook romance!"

"Well we's got bigger problems right now 'cause…" – they all braced themselves – "WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"

Although the Team Rocket debacle had somewhat taken the wind out of their sails where helping Ash see sense was concerned, the sad little scavenger hunt was still very much on. In any case, the group (barring Ash) had unanimously decided that they'd had quite enough adventuring for one day, and returned to the Ketchum household for what Cilan had loudly coined "evaluating time".

"Oh, you're back!" Delia chirped. "Did you discover your secret admirer yet, Ashy?"

The look on her son's face instantly gave Delia an answer she didn't like, to which she responded by shooting Brock and Gary an irritated glance that caused them both to shiver.

"Ash, sit down, will ya?" Gary chuckled when he noticed his childhood friend pacing near the front door. "You're making me nervous."

"But we're never going to find any clues just sitting around in here!" he cried. "There's gotta be somewhere else we can go for answers, right, guys?"

"I have to wonder, Ash," said Max, "how do you even feel about knowing one of your friends is in love with you? And what do you plan to do when you find it who it is?"

Ash shrugged. "Uhh…who knows? You know I don't plan ahead, Max. Ehehe."

Sighing, Gary sat up and said, "Ugh, talk about getting blood from a stone. Let's just wrap this thing up." Inhaling deeply, he began with, "It says other people teased the two of you about being a couple. That'd probably go for most of your friends, huh?"

"I dunno," Ash muttered. "Lyra used to say that about me and Dawn for a little while."

"Dawn, the incredibly beautiful and talented pokémon coordinator? Please, guys must be chucking themselves at her twenty-four-seven! Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind throwing my hat in that ring…"

Brock harshly snapped his fingers multiple times in front of the serial womaniser to keep him on track.

"My point is," Gary smarmed, "that all of your main travelling companions are, let's be honest, stone cold hotties who get a lot of male attention."

"They do?" Ash appeared oddly concerned. "All of them?"

"And I'll bet that means most of them have their eye on someone already. Dawn's a pretty confident gal, so even in a party setting, confessing her feelings in a secret letter just doesn't seem like her style. As for Iris, don't think I didn't notice her stealing glances your way all night, Mr. Fancypants."

Cilan's face sweltered with a sudden heat. "W-Well I never!" he coughed. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"Right, right. Well, in any case…"

Still a little flustered, Cilan daintily flicked down the respective pictures of Ash's Sinnohan and Unovan companions.

"You said Serena had a crush on you, but might've gotten over it by now," Gary continued. Can we rule her out too?"

"But she did kiss him!" Max reminded him.

"True, true, but she also didn't strike me as the teasing type. Cilan?" Another face clicked down on the board.

"Wow…" Ash let out a wobbly laugh. "Not many left now, huh?"

"What about the ketchup thing?" Max pointed out.

"Nah, everyone knows Pikachu loves ketchup," Brock chuckled as he scratched the little mouse's head lovingly. "Ooh, here's something, though. How many people call your mom by her first name? Even I don't do that!"

"Only one as far as I know," Gary smirked.

Ash just shrugged again. "Maybe she was just nervous writing the letter and forgot to be polite?"

"Let's not forget the water pokémon-printed paper exclusive to pokémon gyms," added Cilan. "Far from a commonplace gesture, wouldn't you say?"

"Erm…" Ash wiped a sleeveful of sweat from his brow. "Anyone want a battle or something? It's real hot in here all of a sudden…"

"And only someone who's travelled with Brock would know about his girl-crazy antics," snickered Max. "It's not Dawn, and it's not my sister, so…"

Each little factoid was accompanied by more clicking from Cilan's board, more jeering from Gary and Max, and more strange anxiety for the target of all this effort.

"But this," Brock began, "this is probably the biggest clue of them all."

Ash looked over at the passage in question. Brock's finger was pressed down on the word 'nickname', and his facial expression was surprisingly gentle compared to the jesting features of those opposite.

"Nickname?" Ash continued to laugh off as he sat down beside Brock. "I don't remember any—"

"Mr. Pokémon Master!"

The whole room jumped as the TV flashed on with what looked like a gimmicky children's commercial for the Pokémon League. Ash, having been shocked the most, peeled the squashed TV remote out from underneath him and stood poker straight facing everyone.

"Good progress so far, guys!" he said with energy disproportionate to the quaint living room setting. "Fancy some fresh air, Pikachu?"

"Pika!"

As they scurried through the kitchen and out the back door to the garden, Delia, who had caught some of their discussion in passing while flitting around the house, stuck her head over the banister towards the living room.

"Now, Brock," she solemnly said. "No longer. Please." The fatherly young man nodded.

"I know."

Some minutes later, he found Ash on the back porch, simply staring forwards at the late-afternoon brilliance of the southern Kanto scenery. Pikachu was nestled in the dip of his shoulder, looking somewhat tired but nonetheless giving Brock a small wave as he approached. Taking in a resolute breath, he turned to his best friend and opened his mouth.

"Ash, maybe it's best that I just—"

"It's Misty, isn't it?"

The words stopped Brock in his tracks. What was initially surprise became a quiet relief in the space of just seconds, which he outwardly expressed with a sigh and a slight smile.

"You've known for a while, haven't you?" he said. "I could tell by the way your hyperactivity was dying down."

He laughed shakily. "I think it was during the battle with that girl. Or it might've been because we were where I stole Misty's bike, hehe. Before that, I guess it was more that I, well…hoped."

Though not exactly news to Brock, this admission absolutely hit different coming from Ash himself. "My little bro-bro is all grown up," he blubbed lightheartedly, inviting an eye roll from his conversation partner. "But I have to ask: why lead us around on this wild golduck chase all day?"

Ash looked down, taking off his hat and squeezing it nervously in his hands. "I'm…I'm scared, Brock."

Ash Ketchum, scared? he thought. This truly was a matter of urgency, after all. Without wanting to interrupt, he stayed quiet as a way of inviting the young pokémon master to elaborate.

"I'll be nineteen next week. I should know what this stuff is supposed to feel like by now – love and all that, I mean. It just never seemed important; always figured I'd get around to things like that when I got older. But when you and Misty came to see me in the spring…I dunno what happened, but I think that's when I started to…um, you know…"

He paused to take a long breath, eyes fixed on the green expanse beyond the garden. "I mean, what gives? I'm the Alola League champion, a pokémon master for crying out loud! Why does something like this seem so hard after everything I've done?"

Brock shook his head. "There's nothing more complicated than love, Ash. Take it from a guy who's been rejected more times in twenty-four years than most people will their whole lives." What was supposed to be a poignant silence was then ruined by "OH GOD, WHY CAN'T I GET A GIRL TO LIKE MEEEEE!"

Though a vague chuckle left Ash's throat, he remained undeterred in his train of thought. "It's weird – I can't think about my pokémon journey without thinking about Misty. She pulled me out of that river on my first day of pokémon training, and if she hadn't kicked my butt so much back then, I'd probably never have gotten to where I am now." The little gleam in the deep brown of his eyes was one of childlike excitement. "Does she really feel all those nice things…for me?"

Having known them both as long as he had, Brock could only smile. "Is it so hard to believe? Trust me, any two people that argue like you do are simply meant to be."

"But Misty always talks about how she's a romantic and loves all those fairy tales with princes and castles and stuff. That's not me, right? What if I can't be the kind of person she wants?"

By now, Brock's smile had grown into a full-on grin. "Oh, Ash. It's just one challenge after another with you, isn't it. Why don't you just ask her yourself?"

"Um, well, about that." Ash stopped his friend from speaking again by taking a small square of paper from out of his jacket pocket. "I'm not good at this sort of thing like she is, but…"

"Short and sweet," Brock teased upon reading the handful of words. "Well, you'll never make it as a writer, Ash Ketchum, but you do know how to get straight to the point!"

"It has to be today," Ash said. "It'll take too long if I post it. How do I get this to her in time?"

"Well, I could always ask Gramps to fire up Charizard for you back at the lab…"

The two men turned around on the spot to see Gary, Max, Cilan and Delia all standing in the doorway, friendly smiles of varying smugness across each of their faces.

"Waaah!" Ash cried, his face reddening. "H-How long were you there? Wait, did you guys know this whole time?"

"A truly delicious case it was, Ash, but frankly not at all a difficult one," laughed Cilan with a respectful bow.

"Oh, I'm going to have such beautiful ginger-haired grandchildren!" Delia sobbed with joy.

"Mom!" winced Ash as a wave of playful laughter drenched him.

"Pikachupi! Pikachupi!" sang Pikachu, dancing a little celebration dance on the patio at their feet.

"But why did you go along with this whole hunting-for-clues thing when you could've just told me?" Ash said to cut through the chuntering.

Gary leant on the doorframe, confident smirk still in full bloom. With another flick of his hair, he said only, "The things we do for you, Ashy-boy."

In the courtyard of the gigantic glass megastructure that was the Cerulean City pokémon gym, a proud orange dragon flapped down to the ground at just before 6pm. The vibrations through the floor caught the attention of a now fully healthy (but still quite nervous) Tracey, who sprang up from his seat at the front desk and sighed at least four hours' worth of sighs in one go.

"Oh, thank god!" he almost wept. "Daisy, come quick!"

"What is it, baby?" cooed the glamorous blonde at the other end of the hall. "Like, is that Charizard? Eeeeeeeeee, he finally replied! Better ring up little Ms. Lovesick before she breaks something else."

Her manicured finger gently pressed an orange button behind the desk, which let out a quaint "ding dong!" when she retracted it.

"Hope she isn't at the other end of the building," she laughed. "It'll be, like, a half hour before she gets here!"

"I'm surprised she has any energy left after those outbursts," he shivered, holding his head.

"I, like, told you not to go in her room, didn't I? Anyway, you know what she's like with Ash. And confessing your love to your cute best friend is no little thing, lemme tell you that."

Thankfully, it took just five minutes for Daisy's short-tempered younger sister to make an appearance. Hoisting a dazed and dripping wet Psyduck in her arms, she blew back her orange bangs, revealing watery eyes and enflamed cheeks.

"I was trying to stop this bozo from drowning," she mumbled, dropping the hopeless pokémon to the ground. "What do you want?"

"For you to, like, stop beating yourself up and take a look outside," Daisy giggled.

When Misty did just that, her fragile heart almost burst with anticipation. She tore out of the front doors and over to the receptive pokémon, who immediately handed her Ash's concise but oddly powerful note:

Dear Misty

I liked your letter. Can you meet tonight? I'll wait in our spot.

"That's it?" Daisy frowned, looking over Misty's shoulders. "He doesn't even say where to meet!"

Misty, however, felt herself smiling for the first time since the previous night's party. "The river," she softly said with eyes closed. "Ahh…what a moron you are, Mr. Pokémon Master."

Without hesitation, she hopped onto Charizard's back and said her quick goodbyes before being whisked up into the amber sky and towards the horizon.

"Huh. Well, that was quick," Daisy laughed, "but at least they've got their happily ever after now. Bet Ash was, like, WAY easier to deal with than my little sis, eh, Tray Tray?"

All at once, a million images flashed through the pokémon watcher's mind. He had no idea of any of the finer details, of course – the faux detective act, the barrage of hints and clues, the meandering all the way around Pallet Town, even Team Rocket's brief part to play – and still, with absolute certainty, he knew the misadventures of his Ash-shepherding friends to have been far from a walk in the park. If one could be sure of anything in this life, it was that those two were unquestionably made for each other.

"Oh, I doubt that very much."