Pokemon Ash comeback

Ch 47 Nightmares

It was a nightmare. It was only a terrible nightmare... that's all it was. He looks around to see if anyone had woken up from his small episode and thanked heavens above as no one did. He looked to see that Pikachu was still sleeping soundly, probably dreaming about ketchup. He wants to rub Pikachu's head, but he knows he'd wake up his partner and doesn't want it to worry for him.

Ash sighs yet again, he's been having the same nightmare for the past week now. He hides it all under his façade as he doesn't want his friends to worry over him. The one time it slipped, he joked to everyone that he was probably hitting puberty or something. They all had a good laugh, which he was thankful for. No need to have them worry over him.

He sits up and realizes his arms were shaking. He was afraid. He needed something to calm him down.

Making sure no one would hear, he slowly got off the bed he was in and slowly left the room. The Gym at night is rather eerie oddly enough. The dim lights and narrow hallways give it a rather horror movie setting. He snorts lightly and goes downstairs to the kitchen area to get a bud light from the fridge.

"Bottoms up," he stated as he drank from the bottle and enjoyed the cold beer splash down his throat. He felt dehydrated every time he ever had that nightmare.

"Ash?" he jumped as he heard May's voice. He turns to see her staring at him curiously, but he notices she's worried as well. Does she know?

"Oh, uh, hey, May!" he smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood, "I didn't know you were up. Did I wake you?"

She hesitated to answer and he knew he did, "Oh, uh... sorry 'bout that. Guess I was too loud?" he chuckled lightly. His small chuckle died down as she still stared at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" she asks, hoping for him to answer her truthfully. She knows when he lies, he's pretty bad at it.

"Uh, yeah! I'm fine, May! I just needed some fresh air that's all," he smiled at her, hoping she'd find that convincing, but his arms were still trembling! He tried to keep them from trembling the entire time he drank the bottle, but clearly it didn't work as his shirt has some wet spots as he kept shaking the bottle while drinking it.

Her countenance didn't change and she went up to him, grabbing one of his shaking hands, "You had a nightmare again, didn't you?"

He froze. Wait, she knew?

She held one of his hands with both of hers as she stares at him intently, "I've known for a while... we all have, Ash." Her response shook him up as he pulled away, upset. She frowns at his reaction, this was way too much over a simple nightmare. She went to grab his hand and held it firmly in hers and looks at him once more, "Ash, what did you dream about?"

He stubbornly turns away, not wanting to discuss it, "I don't want to talk about it, May. It's nothing."

"It doesn't sound like it's nothing, Ash! Are you afraid?"

Defensively, Ash turns to her with a snarl, causing her to back up a bit, "Afraid? I'm not afraid of anything! I said it's nothing, May, so leave it at that!"