Chapter Text
Epilogue
“ASH!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Ash flinched back so hard he fell off his chair. His ears were ringing from that sudden burst of noise.
“May! Max! I’m excited to see you guys too, but you could not destroy my ears the second I called”, Ash complained.
“Oh please, your ears aren’t that sensitive. You shout louder than that on a daily basis!”, Max replied, sticking out his tongue.
Despite the three of them being five years older than they were before, they easily fell back into their old bickering routine.
“Oh yeah, the same could be said about you whenever you meet a new Pokemon!” , Ash retorted.
May tried to get them back on track, “Both of you are crazy about Pokemon! But that’s not the reason we’re calling.”
May and Max grinned at each other and shouted in unison, “CONGRATS ASH!!!”
Ash sat there in slight shock as the sibling duo bombarded him with questions and compliments, ranging from bringing back his old Pokemon from his Hoenn team to the ingenious strategies he created throughout the battle.
Ash, despite knowing that they were proud of him, couldn’t help but feel the swirl of pride in his chest. He thought about how cocky and reckless he was back then (that’s not to say how reckless is now), and reflected about how much he’s grown. How they’ve grown. The nostalgia hit him like a hitmonchan, and he really couldn’t wait to have another battle with him.
Ash laughed as he tried to talk over Max’s chatter, “Thanks so much you guys! I don’t know what I would've done without you!”
“I bet you would’ve been just as successful!”, May said with the utmost confidence. “Afterall, it was you who trained Sceptile and Swellow in the first place, along with making all of those amazing strategies. Really, it should be me thanking you for taking us on such an amazing journey! I never would’ve learned so how without you.”
“Aw, May, shucks. Don’t go thanking me for all that, you were also the reason why we had such amazing adventures together,” Ash replied modestly.
“Nah, I wanna thank you anyways, plus that modest look is looking great on you,” May replied with a giggle.
“Yeah, so are we done with the sappy stuff yet”, Max complained as he was sitting right there, “I really wanna know how Swellow learned Boomburst!”
“Oh yeah, so I was training back in Pallet town and saw Swellow and Sceptile off to the side and-”
“ASH! Would you get over here already! Your interview is about to start!”, Iris raced from around the corner, sweat dripping down and an annoyed look spread across her face.
She growled and came up to Ash’s face. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you! The press isn’t going to leave until they interview all of the winners! C’mon!” Iris took Ash’s arm and pulled him up.
“Hurry!”, she said, then looked at the screen. “Sorry Max, sorry May, but I’ve got to take this little kid now.”
“Uh what!?”, Ash’s reply came back. “Sorry guys! I’ll talk to you later”, he said as he raced after Iris.
“Wait, NO!!!”, Max dropped in defeat across the screen. “Ash didn’t finish answering my questions.”
“Oh cheer up Max! We can message him again in a little bit. It was nice to see Ash again, do you think we can make it to his next match in Galar?” May wondered.
Max beamed, “I’ll go book a flight right now! Let’s go surprise him.” Max got up and started typing on his computer.
May joined beside him. Her mind was racing with the idea of seeing him again, she couldn’t wait to show him how much she’s grown.
And with that, Ash was in for a big surprise right before his match with Cynthia. But that was a story for another day…