Well well well, look who's back! It's been a long time (again), but I'm happy to share this new story with you.

Or rather, this first part of a story. I meant for this to be a one-shot, but I put off finishing it for too long, and I wanted to have something ready to post for Advanceshipping Day today, so I'm splitting the difference and posting the first part today. As always, reviews are more than welcome; just be civil about it and stay on topic.

As for why I disappeared this time around...I'll have more to say on that in the near future.

Enjoy!

The usually quiet house in Pallet Town had turned into the central attraction tonight, with several people bustling about. Many of them were young, although there were a few older folks there as well. It was quite chaotic, although nowhere near beyond the point of uncontrollable, especially since the hostess had her fair share of experience with parties like this. This one, however, was easily the biggest she'd ever hosted, but she took nothing but pride in that. And how could she not, seeing how the party was in honor of the Pride of Pallet Town himself?

After years of traveling and training to be the best, Ash Ketchum had finally risen to become just that, having defeated the World Monarch Leon in a fierce battle to determine the Number 1 trainer in the world. While the rest of the world was buzzing at this momentous occasion, the new monarch's mother had arranged a special party for him to celebrate his triumph. She took extra care to make sure everyone – every important person in his life – got an invitation: friends, rivals, professors, champions, and more. Of course, not everyone could make it to this one, and some of the champions declined so as not to attract too much attention from the press. These were few and far between, however, and the area around her house was otherwise swarming with guests.

Although Delia had said the party would last until midnight, she didn't expect everyone to stay that long, and many of the adults left around 9:00. Only Ash's friends, along with a few of his rivals, remained, all reminiscing about their adventures and achievements together. Brock and Misty took special pride in seeing their old friend having grown so strong, and for once were even courteous enough to not mention that his earliest badges were given to him rather than won outright. Dawn and Chloe wouldn't stop gushing about how amazing it was to see his battle with Leon in person, and even ribbed a few of the others who didn't make it. The Alola gang fired back at them by reminding them that Ash was still their regional champion, something which they all took great pride in. Iris expressed excitement about how one of her closest friends was now the strongest trainer in the world, giving her a lofty standard to aspire to, to which Serena remarked that Ash had always set a high standard. Ash himself disagreed with this, admitting that he wasn't infallible, a sentiment that Gary was all too eager to pounce on, much to his embarrassment.

As the whole group conversed, however, one of them was unusually quiet. While she would laugh at some of the snark everyone was sharing, her mind was preoccupied with trying to find a moment to talk to Ash one-on-one, as she hadn't gotten the chance to speak with him in years. A lot had happened since they last met in Sinnoh, and she wanted to share it with him and tell him how proud she was of him for seeing his goals through. And despite the group vibe, she noticed that he was taking time specifically to address all his friends and rivals individually, to thank them for helping him make it this far and telling them just how much each one of them meant to him. So she stood there waiting for her chance to talk to him, since it stood to reason that he would come and talk to her eventually.

But as the night wore on, she began to notice something. Several times throughout the night, he took a moment to speak to someone who was standing close to her, and when he was done, he would move on, and seemingly pass by her without even so much as glancing her way. It seemed like he didn't even notice she was there, but that was impossible, she thought. While she was quieter than usual tonight, she wasn't completely silent; she'd even thrown a few snarky remarks around here and there and gotten a laugh out of everyone, including Ash. So there was no way he didn't know she was there. But if that was the case, then why wasn't he acknowledging her?

She tried to shrug it off, reasoning that even though he was the king of the world – literally, she thought – he was still the same Ash she traveled with: impulsive and easily excited. Of course he would notice someone else and go over to them without acknowledging her. That was just in his nature. He wasn't intentionally ignoring her. Why would he do that? After all, they'd had their fair share of adventures together. They'd shared laughter and tears just the same as everyone else in the room had shared with him, and the memories she held in her heart meant everything to her. Surely he felt the same way, right?

Right?

It was 10:00 now, and Ash was still going around and talking with his friends one-on-one. The others, meanwhile, had splintered off into groups and were having their own conversations. She thought about joining one of them, but the conversations moved too fast for her to get a word in tonight. So she sat to the side, idly fiddling with the hem of her skirt as she watched Ash move around, talking with everyone about their adventures, as well as what the future might hold.

Finally, Ash stepped away from one group and stood by himself for a moment. He made an idle remark to himself about how exhausting talking to everyone was, although he quickly followed this up with a smile, reminding himself why he kept doing it: because everyone in the room had a special place in his heart. Although everyone else was busy talking amongst themselves, she heard him say this and felt her heart flutter. It was then that she realized that this was her chance to talk with him one-on-one: just what she had waited all night for. She stood up with the biggest smile on her face, swallowing her nervousness, and started to walk towards him. He looked in her direction, and she felt her heart skip a beat. He started walking towards her, and she placed her hands over her chest, her excitement starting to rise as she was finally getting what she wanted…

…only for someone else to abruptly cut in front of her, nearly causing her heart to stop. Not only had this person come between her and Ash, but Ash decided to take this chance to talk to them now about how important they were to him. Getting cut off like that was disheartening enough, but as she listened to their conversation, she realized who he was talking to, and her heart started to sink.

He was talking to Paul.

While she had never met Paul in person, she knew all about him from her phone calls with Dawn; she knew how horribly he treated Ash in Sinnoh, as well as his own Pokemon. All of this made her hate him without even meeting him, which usually would be unreasonable, although most of the other people in the room would hardly blame her given that this was Paul they were talking about. While she had always tuned in whenever Ash was participating in a major tournament, she took extra care to make sure she watched his Sinnoh League battle against Paul. She still remembered how ecstatic she and her brother were when Infernape finally took down Electivire: the way they leapt up from their seats, one would have thought their dad had just become the Champion of Hoenn.

She never heard anything about Paul after that, aside from the fact that he and Ash had buried the hatchet, and took satisfaction in knowing that he got what he deserved. Yet here he was, talking with Ash one-on-one the same way Ash had spoken to all his close friends…the way she wanted to talk to him. She was in disbelief. While she could understand if he wanted to talk to his Sinnohan rival like that, she couldn't understand why he would pass up the chance to her to do so. Even though she knew that sounded selfish, she couldn't help herself. Hadn't they shared so many adventures together? Hadn't they made dozens of amazing memories? And hadn't this guy been nothing but a cruel thorn in his side all throughout his journey through Sinnoh? If that was the case, then why would he talk to him instead of her? They were never exactly friends, even after burying the hatchet, and even if they were, she couldn't fathom that they were as close as she felt to him.

And that's when the awful truth hit her. She felt close to him…but that didn't mean he felt the same way.

As she watched the two rivals walk over and sit across from each other, her heart completely sank. How could the memories they made together not mean anything to him? She couldn't fathom why that was, but then she started looking around the room, at all the friends he made on his way to the top, and she realized that everyone else had just as much a claim to that question as she did. All of them had made memories and shared adventures with Ash, and those memories meant the world to them in the exact same way. It stood to reason, then, that he had made hundreds of memories of his own with everyone in the room. He had a big heart and had a lot of people and Pokemon he cared deeply about.

But even the biggest heart could only fit so many people. And as she put two and two together, she realized that there was no vacancy left. There was no more room in his heart for any more people, and even if there was…well, he would probably find more Pokemon to fill that space.

He had his dream, and she had hers.

Finally, she stood up, grabbed her things, and, after grabbing one more cookie from the desserts, she turned and walked out the front door without another word. Her head hung low as she stared at the ground, feeling more and more distant from her best friend as she went. She hugged herself as she felt a cold breeze blow through, sending a shiver down her spine.

"May?"

She stopped when she heard someone call her name from behind her. It wasn't Ash; she'd resigned herself to that. But it was a good friend.

"Hey, Serena."

"Hey, what're you doing out here?" the honey-blond asked her.

May looked around, loosening her arms and letting them fall to the side. "I was…uh…just getting some fresh air."

Serena folded her arms and looked her in the eye. "Were you really?"

"Ah…well…" May stammered a moment, then sighed. "I guess I'm a bad liar." She looked back at her friend. "I was just leaving. I need to get my things in order to get home tomorrow."

"Why?" Serena asked. "Don't you want to stay and hang out?"

"No, not tonight," May said. "Maybe some other time."

"May, there might not be 'some other time,'" Serena reminded her. "Ash's mom worked hard to pull this together, and it could be ages before we have an occasion to all get together again. Besides, don't you want to catch up with Ash? Didn't you tell me when we got here that it's been ages since you last saw each other?"

"Yeah, I do want to catch up with him," May nodded sadly, "but…I don't think he's interested in catching up."

"What?!" Serena exclaimed. "You're kidding, right? Why wouldn't he want to catch up?"

"I don't know," May sighed, "but he's been talking to everyone else about how much they mean to him, yet he barely seems to know I'm here. And then just when I thought he might be coming over to talk to me, it turns out he was going to talk to Paul."

"Paul?" Serena said. She wasn't as familiar with most of Ash's rivals as his other friends were. "Oh, right: the guy who treated him like dirt when he was traveling through Sinnoh."

"Yeah," May said. "I can't understand why he'd talk to him instead of me when we made so many wonderful memories together, while Paul did nothing but give him grief."

"Hey, yeah, you're right!" Serena exclaimed. "Why would he do that? I remember him telling me about Paul and how some of his memories of that guy still hurt to think about! He doesn't have any memories like that with you, does he?"

"No," May shook her head. "Well, maybe one or two, but I can't imagine it's anything compared to what Paul put him through." She sighed. "And yet he still would rather talk to him instead of me."

"No, that doesn't make any sense," Serena mused. "Maybe he saw you and was going to talk to you, but Paul got in the way? Or maybe you misread the situation? Or –"

"Or maybe I'm just not as important to him anymore."

Serena gasped when she heard that. "What?"

"His heart only has room for so many people," May said, looking down again. "I guess he doesn't have any room left for me."

"May, how can you say that?!" Serena asked. "You know just as well as all of us that Ash has a big heart! He loves and cares for all his friends, family, and Pokemon; there's no way he doesn't care about you the same way!"

"He does have a big heart," May agreed, smiling softly, but it didn't last. "But even the biggest hearts only have so much room for other people." She turned away, placing a hand over her heart. "I'm going home. Bye Serena." With that, she walked off, doing her best to swallow the lump forming in her throat as she went.

"May," Serena whispered sadly as she watched her friend disappear into the darkness.