Pokemon Ash comeback

Ch 14 New Journey

Ash was surprised that Professor Oak had had this planned for so long and that his mother had managed to keep it a secret all this time. He put the belt on and slotted his poke balls, Pokédex and Pokénav into the slots, he hugged his mother again and walked to the door.

"I'll call you as soon as I get to Hoenn."

"Okay Ash. Have fun and remember to change your underwear every day.""Mum! I'm fourteen now you don't need to remind me to do that!"

"I know honey but you know what they say old habits die hard. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too mum."

Ash opened the door and after giving his mother a final wave he left the house and started walking towards Route 1 with charizard
and Pikachu either side of him. Delia watched her son from the door with a tear in her eye, she walked out of the house with Mimey and they waved at the trio who did the same until they were out of sight. Delia stood outside for a moment longer feeling incredibly proud that Ash had matured so much and then followed Mimey back inside. Petalburgh City, Hoenn Region.

"Please May! Please!" Max begged his sister.

"I said NO Max, I want to go see Ash by myself. You can go visit him another time." May retorted. Max had heard of May's plan to go to Pallet Town and he had been begging to come along for nearly three hours now. Frankly, May was getting tired of it.

"But May, I want to congratulate him on his big win too! It's not fair!" Max huffed.

Even though he was 11 now, he still sometimes acted like a young child. At this point, Caroline had over heard the two arguing. In fact, she had been listening to them arguing for what seemed like forever. She couldn't take anymore, so she was preparing to walk between the two siblings with the intention of placating both sides.

By this point, May and Max were face to face. May used to use this tactic all the time back when Max was only 7 but now, he was 11, and also slightly taller than her. May stood about 5'8" and Max was slowly closing in on 5'9".

May had a feeling that her looming intimidation wouldn't work anymore, but that didn't stop her from trying. Finally, the two were separated by their mother.

"Alright, you two, I've had enough of this! May, will you let Max go if he promises to not get in the way of anything you and Ash do?" Caroline questioned her daughter.

"Hmph...I guess so... But he has to promise! And if he does get in the way then he has to go home." May argued, finally relenting.

Caroline looked at Max to see if he agreed to the terms. Max had a big smile on his face. "Yes, that sounds fine with me. Thank you May! Thank you!" Max ran up and hugged his sister.

May couldn't help but smile as she hugged her little brother. No matter how much they fought and argued, they still loved each other very much. "No problem Max. just make sure you keep up your end of the deal. This is still my trip after all." Max nodded his head in agreement as he broke off the hug.

"Well, looks like my work here is done." Caroline said satisfied. "Now you two better get packing and then get to bed. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

Both siblings nodded their heads and ran up the stairs to their rooms. Even though their ferry wasn't leaving in the early morning, they still wanted to be well rested for the day of travel they had ahead of them.

As the two reached the second floor, Max followed May into her bedroom. As they entered the room, May took notice of her brother.

"Max, why are you following me?" May asked, much more patient now that she had cooled down from earlier.

Max rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he responded, "Well...I kind of already packed. I just assumed that I would eventually convince you to let me come. Looks like I was right. Hehe..."

May looked at her brother with just a hint of anger, but shrugged it off, realizing that another fight wasn't worth it at the moment. "And now, I have nothing to do until I get tired, so I thought I'd help you pack, May."

May smiled at the gesture and allowed Max to put away the clothes she would hand him. However, she stopped abruptly when she saw a certain item on her bedside table... her half of the terracotta ribbon. She typically always kept it on her person, but had put it up in her room a few hours after Ash had won the Indigo League as she had changed into different clothes to lounge in. She always kept it on her not only as a good luck charm, but as a way to always feel close to Ash, her best friend.

Now however, she couldn't help but feel even more attached to the ribbon than ever before, and that was really saying something given how powerfully she felt connected to the ribbon already. She stared at it for a while, trying to figure out just what had changed, or if it had always been like this and she just had never noticed it before. After a while of thinking, she finally decided to attribute it to the fact that she was finally getting to see Ash again after nearly 4 years, even despite the lack of confidence she had behind her reasoning...

She thought she was just giddy and excited to see her best friend again after so long and felt as if the ribbon represented everything that was Ash. But that still didn't seem right. It still felt as if it meant...more.

A lot more

May was broken out of her sentimental gaze by her brother, "May are you just going to stare at that ribbon all night or are you going help? After all this is yourstuff we're packing."

May blushed and quickly grabbed the ribbon and slipped it into her pocket, walking over to help Max so that they would be ready for their full day of travel.

Both Max and May felt extremely giddy and excited about tomorrow and both doubted they would get any sleep that night. It felt like they were young kids again and it was Christmas Eve. May particularly doubted she'd ever been looking forward to anything more in her life.

They could not wait to see Ash.