Ash's Last Dance

Old Friends

3rd Person POV

Ash and his friends finally made it to Santalune City, the place with the first Gym and the first Contest.

"So, what type does the Gym Leader specialize in?" Ash asked Clemont.

"She specializes in Bug Types, and she uses a Surskit and a Vivillon by the way" Clemont replied.

"What's a Vivillon?" Dawn asked.

"You'll see," Bonnie replied. "It's really beautiful."

It was now about evening, so Ash decided that he would fight the gym the next day. He saw a huge dome as he was walking to a park to train his new Fletchling some more. 

He then realized that the Contest here would take place tomorrow. He decided to go check it out since he had nothing else better to do.

With Pikachu on his shoulder, he walked over to the dome. There were several coordinators who were there for the event, most of them signing up last minute. After a few minutes, he got bored, so he decided to just leave.

While he was leaving, he spotted the same girl in the red bandanna he had seen earlier that week. It was May.

Ash wasn't too surprised by this, however. He had known he would probably run into her sometime with her doing the Contests, he just hadn't expected to run into her that fast.

He would've gone to say hi, but she was seemed to be busy talking to her friends, so he decided that he would talk to her later. He didn't want to interrupt, and plus, he felt out of place whenever he was with May and her friends.

He was comfortable being with May, he had traveled with her for over a year, but when he was with her and her friends, he felt that they constantly wanted him to leave.

But life had other plans. A voice called out to him. It wasn't May, it was a dude.

Ash turned around, and was surprised to see Max, May's little brother. He looked taller than he was back in Hoenn. He was 5' 4" now, which was pretty good for his age, which should've been about 11-12 since he was 8 when he travelled with him. Ash stopped internally for a second.

'Damn, am I that old?' he thought to himself.

Max ran over to him.

"Are you Ash?" he asked.

"Who?" Ash replied.

Pikachu smacked him on the back of his head.

"Pikachu!" the Pokemon said nodding.

"Really?!" he asked.

"Yes, Max, it's me" Ash said with a smirk.

Max ran into him and gave him a hug.

Once he let go, he started rambling about all the things he had done in Hoenn and how he had watched all of Ash's matches in the leagues.

"I saw your Top 4 placement in Sinnoh, too! If that guy didn't have a bunch of Legendary Pokemon, you would've won for sure!" Max said.

"I don't really know about winning, anymore Max. I'm just a Top 8 trainer, nothing more than that, really" Ash said with a shrug.

"What do you mean?! You got Top 4 in Sinnoh" Max asked.

"I got Top 16 in Kanto and Top 8 everywhere else. That ends up to me being a Top 8 trainer. You of all people should've been able to calculate that, Max" Ash said with a small chuckle at the end.

"But we both know you're better than a Top 8 trainer, Ash. Since when did you become so depressed? The Ash I knew was super cheerful and determined to be a Pokemon Master" Max said with hint of sadness.

"It's just that...after I'm done travelling through Kalos, my dream will just be a dream. There's almost no way I'm gonna win the Kalos League" Ash said sadly.

"Come on, Ash. You've just started your Kalos journey. You can't give up before it even begins!" Max said.

Ash smiled, thinking about something he had once said to someone a long time ago.

"I guess you're right."

Max was glad to see his childhood idol finally turn back into somewhat of the person he used to know. Ash had grown a lot from the 12-year-old kid that had gone through Hoenn.

"So Max, what are you going here in Kalos? Are you traveling with May?" Ash asked.

"Sort of. Oh yeah! I'm a trainer now!" Max said with glee.

"I thought so. So, you're travelling with her and her friends?" Ash asked.

"Unfortunately," Max grumbled.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked.

"Drew is so annoying. Solidad's okay, I guess, but being with them is awful. They're all coordinators, so I'm going to basically have to beg to fight Gyms" Max replied.

Then, the two of them looked up when they heard a girl call Max's name.

"Ash?!" May asked, surprised.

"Hey, May. It's been a couple of days" Ash said, waving.

"Yeah, I guess" she replied.

"Wait, what?" Max asked.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you...I saw Ash earlier when I went to the Contest in Kanto a few days ago" May said.

"And you didn't tell me!?!?!" Max yelled.

Ash and May chuckled. It brought them memories of the 3 of them travelling together with Brock. 

While May wouldn't say it front of Drew or Solidad, she enjoyed traveling with Ash way more than with the two of them.

"Well, I'm going to challenge the Gym tomorrow, so I better head back. The others are probably waiting for me" Ash said as he got ready to go.

"Wait! Can't you stay for a bit longer? I'm tired of hearing stupid Contest stuff from those 3" Max said looking at Ash with helpless eyes.

Ash looked at his Poketch, it wasn't too late, he could spare some time.

"Alright, I guess" he said scratching the back of his neck. "Wanna go to the park or something?"

"Sure!" Max said eagerly.

"Then I'm coming, too" May said.

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A/N: This was a bit of a filler chapter, just needed it to help Advanceshipping get going and stuff. Hope you enjoyed 950 words cyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.