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“Oh, honey, look at those purple flowers!”
There are ribombee flitting around the patch of wildflowers they’ve stumbled across, so colorful it looks like a rainbow, blossoming across the ground. Bright purple and pink and white, and blue and yellow and red, brilliant and seeming nearly to glow in the light of the May sun. He notices peonies in the mix, there, and realizes that it’s been a year since he first stared at those peonies out the Pokemon Center window, wishing and wishing and wishing that he knew how to garden.
And now, and now, he’s been traveling with his mom for almost eight months, and she’s taught him all about flowers and vegetables and ground cover, and mulch and seeds and the way roots best absorb water, and he’s proud to say he’s nearly as interested in this as he is in pokemon, which says a lot, considering that he’s - well, he’s, supposedly, the best trainer in the entire world. He knows that’s not true, not really - he’s not a Pokemon Master yet, after all. But he will be. One day.
And, now, it’s a week from his twentieth birthday, and the idea that it’s been an entire decade since he set out on a Pokemon Journey, clueless and hauling an angry pikachu by a clothesline, rubber gloves on his hands, is so absurd and overwhelming he doesn’t know what to do.
“What type are they, Mom?”
“They’re gladiolus flowers!”
“Gladio…wait, is Gladion named after a flower?” The idea of Gladion, who loves to toit his emo all black exterior, being named after these brightly colored flowers is so ironic it gets a laugh out of Ash. “Oh, man, I gotta tell him that!”
Ash takes a picture of the flowers, intending to track down a contact for Gladion so he can give him shit for it later.
Mom is smiling at him when he looks up. “Gladion…now, remind me, is that your sweet friend Lillie’s brother? The one with the weird haircut?”
Ash laughs harder, Pikachu joining in. Oh, yeah, he’s definitely telling Gladion about this. “You’re dead right on that one,” he says. Mom laughs. “Well, then, it seems his sister is named after a flower, too. See those other purple flowers? Those are iris lilies. There’s plenty of types of lilies, too. Remember those white flowers we passed a little while back?”
“Well, that’s more like Lillie. She loves to wear all white.”
Mom laughs again, and Ash looks to her. “Now that I think about it, quite a few of your friends are named after flowers. Iris, Mallow, Lillie, Gladion. And me, too!”
Ash smiles, playfully elbowing his mom. “You’re my friend, that’s for sure. And my traveling partner!”
It’s at this point that Catty comes flitting back from wherever it had wandered off to, probably off smelling some flowers. With the coming of spring had come a metamorphosis for Catty, evolving into a metapod and then very quickly a butterfree. Having a butterfree around again is truly joyous, and yet bittersweet, still. It’s been a year and a half since he last saw Butterfree, and it was nearly eight years before that. He hopes, maybe a little foolishly, that he’ll run into it once more.
Mom beams down at him. This whole traveling thing is very new to her, even though she’s caught three pokemon since they saw Brock, and she’s battled quite a few trainers. She’s a total natural, and she constantly makes Ash proud, but she’s still got that sense of wonder that comes with a new trainer. It’s something Ash would like to think he still carries around, though he’s worried he’s lost it, maybe a bit. But it’s coming back. It’s still coming back, especially with Mom by his side, and with each day closer to summer he’s felt - rejuvenated. He hasn’t stared out the window, listless, for a good long while now, and Mom still looks at him weird sometimes, after - well, after seeing Brock. But, still. It’s good. It’s so good.
There’s a rustle in the bushes under some yellow mustard flowers and a rattata worms its way out, thorns caught in its purple fur. “Ratty,” Delia admonishes. “How’d you get yourself into that mess?”
“Oh, come on, Mom,” Ash says, leaning down and letting Ratty jump into his arms, brushing its fur clean. “Everyone’s just happy about the warmer weather.”
Pikachu chirps his assent, and Ratty climbs up his arm to settle on his other shoulder. Mom smiles. “I’m glad to see you and Pikachu starting to get along, Ratty,” Mom says. It chatters back at her. “Hey, we should give everyone a snack,” Ash says. “It’s been a few hours since we’ve eaten, and Ratty’s hungry.”
“Ratty’s hungry, or you are, Mister Bottomless Stomach?”
Ash laughs, and Mom releases the rest of her pokemon from their balls. Mimey, Swiny, who hasn’t been as averse to the warmer weather as they might’ve expected, and Mom’s two other new pokemon. Pichi, the tiny underweight pichu they found curled in an oversized tulip, creating a striking image of a little thumbelina, who Pikachu’s taken something of a mentor role to. And, of course, their newest addition: Ivy, Mom’s ivysaur. All the pokemon make quite a rowdy bunch when they’re all let out for food.
Ivy scampers around the flowers, taking in their scents and absorbing sunlight. Pichi runs around in a circle. Even though it’s still so small, it’s been growing steadily, almost to the size of a normal pichu. It nibbles on a purple clover, taking in the sweetness.
“Snacktime, everyone!” Mom says, pulling food out of her bag and serving it to the pokemon. Pikachu lets out a happy cry and jumps over to the pile, as do the rest of the pokemon. Ash pulls out sandwiches he made for Mom and himself this morning, letting the sweetness of the peanut butter and honey roll over his tongue. Is this the sort of thing Catty tastes when it sucks the nectar from flowers? Because if it is, he certainly can’t blame the little pokemon for fluttering off more and more often recently, as spring brings more and more blooms.
Ash closes his eyes as he chews, letting the sunlight roll over his skin. He’s been letting Pikachu wear his hat more and more often recently, which means there’s more sunlight on his face as of late. He swears he can almost feel his cheeks freckling in the sun.
Mom’s always had redder cheeks than he, with her skin just a shade lighter. He remembers being little and putting her blush on his cheeks, trying to make himself look more like her.
All he sees is red, sunlight bleeding in through his eyelids. Bright red like Pikachu’s electrical pouches.
Ash thinks his favorite colors are that which he sees when he looks into his partner’s face. How could they be anything else? It’s his partner.
“Where’d you get the honey for this?” Mom asks him, and he opens his eyes to look at her. “I bought it from the farmer’s market in the last town we went to! They were selling clover honey made by their very own ribombee!”
“Well, I can certainly taste it!”
They smile at each other, and Ash feels even warmer than before, love and fondness and pride washing over his skin along with the soft sunlight.
When they finish eating, they pack everything up and keep walking, expecting to reach the next town within the hour. Pikachu and Ratty hop back up onto Ash’s shoulders, and Pichi rides on Mom’s. Catty doesn’t ride on Mom’s shoulder anymore, having wings now; it prefers to feel the wind under those great papery wings. Ash wonders what it would be like to be able to fly away whenever you wanted to.
The sun keeps kissing his skin, and the flowers keep going, and eventually they end up in a small town Ash isn’t sure of the name of. “Whoa,” he says, once they get into the tiny Pokemon Center. “Look, Mom, there’s a tag battling competition this afternoon!”
Mom smiles, and pumps her fist in a habit Ash can’t tell if he got from her or she got from him. “The two of us against the world?”
Ash smiles, grin reflecting hers. “The two of us against the world,” he confirms, with a fist pump of his own.
Mom’s dabbled in tag battling here and there, but she hasn’t done a competition, and she certainly hasn’t done it with Ash, and before the two of them set out on a journey together Ash had never even considered that having a tag battle with his mom, in an official setting, was something he could do.
He is so siked.
They have about an hour until the competition starts, so they quickly register with Nurse Joy who seems excited but surprised to have out-of-towners there.
They can only register one pokemon each in the competition, since it’s so small. Ash’s pick is, of course, Pikachu. Mom chooses Ivy, who’s been training itself for a Solar Beam for a little while now, and seems to Ash much like his own bulbasaur - always looking for a battle. Ivy and Pikachu have gotten into some friendly scuffles, which started nearly instantaneously after Ivy was caught.
There are eight teams in all, they find, once the competition starts. Ash scans the small crowd of competitors, seeing, among them, a girl with a liepard and a boy with a raticate. They’re holding hands and the audience is cheering them on. He’s pretty sure they’re a fan favorite.
There’s an announcer up in front of everyone now. He doesn’t have a mic but he’s yelling at the top of his lungs so everyone can hear him. He pulls names out of a hat in order to pair them up.
Finally, after four draws, their name is called. “The ‘Ketchum All’ team, with mother and son Delia and Ash Ketchum, will be going against the ‘Milano’ team, comprised of sisters Millie and Anne!”
Ash smiles and looks over to a pair of girls. The older one, who’s probably his age, has a florges next to her. The younger one, who’s probably Max’s age, has a girafarig. She waves to Ash, and he waves back.
He heard a mutter from behind him, and looks around to see a few of the contestants looking at him and whispering. “Ash Ketchum?” he hears them ask. “The World Champion?”
He feels his shoulders hike up just a little. He hates getting attention like this. But Mom just squeezes his hand and it grounds him, and he smiles easily at them. “Hi,” he says, with a little wave. They smile, big and genuine, and wave in turn.
Since he and Mom are the second match to happen in the first round, they watch the first pairing. It’s a slowpoke teamed with a primeape up against a swellow and weepinbell. It’s an exciting battle, and ultimately the swellow and weepinbell pull through. Soon enough, he and Mom are up.
They step up to the box, and Mom reaches for his hand. “I’m a little nervous,” she says, and there’s the slightest tremor in her voice. “What if we lose?”
Ash shrugs. “Then we lose! Arceus knows I’ve lost more times than I can count, right Pikachu?”
Pikachu chitters, then nods. “Losing’s no big deal, Mom. Remember, never give up til’ it’s over. And it’s never over!”
Mom smiles, and then nods her head once, a determined grin spreading across her face. He thinks that, if she had a hat like him, she’d turn it so it was backwards, like he did when he was younger. With that in mind, he turns his hat around, and the two of them high five.
And then their opponents, Millie and Anne, step forward. Millie’s florges looks menacing, the way it moves from side to side, and Girafarig’s tail snaps its teeth. Ivy growls a challenge, Pikachu following suit, and Ash settles into a battle stance.
“Ready,” the referee says, “and start!”
Girafarig launches forward faster than Ash can even blink. “Stomp!” Anne calls. “Quick Attack!” Ash commands, and Pikachu follows suit instantaneously.
Stomp misses Pikachu just barely, having used Quick Attack to avoid Girafarig’s legs, before launching into Florges, throwing it back a few paces. “Awesome,” Ash says, incredibly quick on the uptake, “now Iron Tail!”
“Swift!” Millie yells, and Florges flings glowing stars towards Pikachu, who is already in the air and thus unable to completely dodge. Nonetheless, his Iron Tail still lands a hit on his opponent.
“Um,” Mom says, looking a little lost. “Ivy, Take Down on Girafarig!”
“Crunch!” Anne counters. Ivy is faster, launching itself at Girafarig, who takes the hit, but then it crunches down on Ivy’s flower, making it yowl. “Ivy, keep it together!” Mom says, enthusiastic but not too worried. “You got this! Close range Razor Leaf!”
Razor Leaf, Ash smiles to himself, is a move produced directly from the flower - which, of course, is currently in Girafarig’s mouth. Because of this, the sharp leaves fly straight into Girafarig’s throat, and it cries and lets Ivy go, who lets more leaves fly out, filling the whole arena.
“Thunderbolt on Girafarig, Pikachu!” Ash commands. Pikachu jumps off his current position on top of Florges, shocking Girafarig. “Florges, Petal Blizzard then Helping Hand!”
Anne, hearing Millie’s move to help her, yells “Psychic, Girafarig!”
Sharp petals explode into the air, striking both Pikachu and Ivy. It’s a beautiful move, glittering in the May sun, but Ash can only appreciate it for a moment before he’s brought back to the battle. Florges’ Helping Hand makes Psychic cause more damage, and Girafarig aims it entirely on Ivy, who is frozen in place and clearly taking damage. Mom calls for Ivy to Vine Whip, but it can’t move at all, and so Ash yells “Quick Attack and then Iron Tail, Pikachu!” Pikachu launches into action, directing his attack directly on Girafarig’s tail, the center of its psychic power, and it falters enough to let Ivy go.
The battle lulls, for a moment, each pokemon breathing heavily. They need to finish this quickly, Ash realizes, because their pokemon need enough stamina to last through two more battles today.
“Electroweb!” Ash yells, at the same time as Mom yells “Vine Whip!”
Vine Whip wraps around Florges, who quickly reacts with a Magical Leaf, and Electroweb surrounds Girafarig, who cannot use Psychic quickly enough to escape from the shock.
When the dust clears, Girafarig has fainted. Florges uses Swift again, which has Ivy responding in turn with Razor Leaf. After that attack, Florges is down for the count.
“Florges is unable to battle, and the ‘Ketchum All’ team has one!”
Applause fills the small stadium, and Ash crouches down so Pikachu can run into his arms. “Good job, buddy!” he laughs, and when he looks over he sees Mom petting Ivy’s blossom. “Congrats, Mom,” he says, and they high five. “One match done, two more to go!”
She smiles back at him, and laughs giddily, and he can see how proud she is of herself.
Good. Good. She should be.
Their next battle is against a ten-year-old boy named Aaron, who has a zebstrika, and his father, Pete, with a helioptile. It’s an electric battle if Ash has ever seen one, and it’s electrifying. He feels static crawl up his skin and Ivy’s resistance to electricity serves it well. They trade attack after attack, lightning bolt after lightning bolt, and soon enough, they’ve made it to the finals.
And, of course, their final match is against the fan favorite team Ash saw at the beginning. He thinks they were introduced as last years’ winners at some point. The girl, Yulla, proudly stands next to her liepard. Next to her, Seth, who is announced as her cousin, smiles along with his raticate.
Everyone’s pokemon look a little worse for wear, only having berries and brief rests to help them recover, but they’re ready for the final battle.
The referee shouts for the battle to begin, and Liepard launches forward. “Fury Swipes!” Yulla yells, and Pikachu barely manages to jump out of the way, Liepard’s claws swiping up a sand cloud where Pikachu was a moment before. “Vine Whip!” Mom says. “Catch Liepard!”
Liepard, extremely fast as it is, jumps out of the way, but Vine Whip manages to just catch the cat’s tail, making it screech. Raticate, on Seth’s command, launches a Sludge Bomb at Ivy. “Whoa!” Mom yells, and Ivy has to let go of Liepard to avoid the poison-type move.
“Watch out for Raticate, Mom!” Ash warns. He tells Pikachu to Iron Tail Raticate.
Before he can land it, Raticate launches Ice Beam, freezing Pikachu’s tail. He barely misses a beat before striking his tail against the ground, breaking the ice.
Wow. Ash pants, marveling at the extreme action that’s taken place in the last thirty seconds. These battlers are leagues above anyone else he’s seen in this competition, and it gets his blood pumping, and he settles into a deeper battle stance, smiling. “Oh, yeah,” he says. “Pikachu, you feel that?”
Pikachu gives an affirmation. Yes, he feels the battle spirit in the air too. It will only spur them on. “Electroweb, up into the sky! Make it big!”
Pikachu gets Ash’s vision immediately, making an Electroweb the size of the battlefield and launching it up. In a moment, it will encompass all four pokemon. Ash has maybe ten seconds of free moment before it traps and damages them all. But with Pikachu’s high tolerance for electricity and Ivy’s resistance, they’ll take less damage.
“Vine Whip Liepard!” Mom calls, and Raticate prepares for an Ice Beam on Seth’s command. “Protect Ivy!” Ash tells Pikachu, who Quick Attacks Raticate before it can follow through on the Ice Beam, knocking it to the side.
And then, the Electroweb descends on them all.
It traps the four of them in place, electrocuting them. Their opponents cry out for their pokemon. Raticate uses Dig to escape the worst of the damage, but Liepard does nothing but sit there and take it, being trapped by Vine Whip.
After a moment, the web, with nothing grounding it, dissipates. “Pay Back!” Yulla yells, and Ash has an oh shit moment because Liepard’s just taken lots of damage. “Move, Pikachu!” he yells, but it’s just a moment too late, and Payback hits with the force of a train, casting Pikachu across the battlefield. He rolls to a stop, and Ash leans forward, worried that he’s down for the count. Pikachu is still for a moment, and then jumps up and shakes himself off. “Yeah, Pikachu!” Ash shouts. He knows his partner can’t go forever, though.
When he looks over he finds that Mom is scanning the field for Raticate, who is still underground. She doesn’t see it fast enough, not like Ash does - the way the ground right under Ivy is starting to move. Still, his shout is not enough of a warning, and Raticate strikes Ivy with an Ice Beam straight to the stomach, which makes it cry out. Mom shouts in worry. Ivy lands on its feet, before stumbling.
There is no rest. “Sludge Bomb!” Seth commands, and if this hits Ivy Ash thinks it will be unable to battle.
“Electroweb!” Ash shouts. It’s not the best move he could make - throwing an Electroweb to protect Ivy will still damage it somewhat. But here is the thing: Sludge Bomb has already started, and their are purple bullets of poison launching towards the grass type, and electricity is better than poison. Nearly anything is better than poison, for a grass type.
Pikachu, as always, understands exactly what he means. As he follows through, Liepard stalks up to him. “Night Slash on Pikachu!” It scratches Pikachu across his back but in less than an instant he is striking back with an Iron Tail, which launches Liepard to the side.
Ash’s eyes are torn towards Ivy, who has white energy gathering around its blossom. “Mom!” Ash says breathlessly. “Ivy’s going to use Solar Beam!”
It’s a very sunny day, which only helps their case, and Mom smiles a huge smile. “You think?” she asks, before turning her attention to her pokemon. “Ivy, Solar Beam!”
There’s pride in her voice. There’s so much pride in her voice. It’s wondrous.
After a moment, Ivy launches an incredible Solar Beam directly at Raticate, who wasn’t expecting it, and it can’t dodge in time, taking the blast point-blank. It is so bright it whites Ash’s vision out for a moment. After a few seconds, once he can see again, it lay before his eyes.
“Raticate is unable to battle!”
“Go Mom!” Ash calls. “Go Ivy!”
Their moment of celebration comes at a cost, though. Liepard uses Psycho Cut on Ivy, which is enough to push it over the edge, and it faints as well.
Which leaves just the two of them.
“Quick Attack and use a Thunder Bolt combo with Iron Tail, Pikachu!” Ash yells. It’s something the two of them haven’t done in awhile - combining three of Pikachu’s four moves. And even though Pikachu is tired, Ash knows he is more than capable. And they have to finish this. They have to.
“Pay Back!” Yulla nearly screeches. If this hits, Ash knows: it is over.
But even though Liepard is fast, Pikachu’s been trained primarily on speed, and the second Ash yelled he sprung into action. He moves at the speed of light over to the cat pokemon, jumping into the air, flipping, and forming what looks almost like an Electroball at the base of his tail. The Iron Tail strikes Liepard in the middle of its back, and lightning follows.
Ash sees Pikachu fall, and he sees Liepard fall, and he crosses his fingers that it was enough.
“Liepard is unable to battle!” The referee yells. His voice is filled with elation - Ash knows that battles of this caliber aren’t often seen, especially in a town that doesn’t have many battlers, as he suspects this is. “The ‘Ketchum All’ team wins! Congratulations, Ash and Delia Ketchum, on winning the tournament!”
Ash runs up to Pikachu, who jumps into his arms, and they spin around together. Ash sees Mom stroking Ivy once more, before recalling it into a ball. When she turns back to him, her smile is one he thinks he will remember for a long time. It makes warmth blossom in his chest, like a flower in spring.
He hears clapping, and he looks to see Yulla walking up to him, a smile on her face. “You’re very impressive,” she says. He thinks she might be Misty’s age. “I have to say, I was blown away - no pun intended - by the way you and your mother handled your pokemon. Congratulations on the win.”
Ash smiles and bounces on his heels. Pikachu climbs onto his shoulder. “Are you kidding? Did you see you and Seth! Oh my Arceus, you guys were so cool! Your pokemon responded so quickly! How long have you been training them for?”
She smiles with pride as she looks at the pokeball in her hands. “A long time. Liepard was my first pokemon, and Raticate was Seth’s. We’ve won this competition every year. I have to say, even though we lost, this is the best battle I’ve had in a long time.”
And smiles even wider. “Pikachu was my first, too. There’s something special about that, isn’t there?”
She nods her head, and then Seth approaches them after greeting Mom. “That was a great battle,” he says. “I’m really impressed.”
“Me too!” Ash responds. “You were so awesome! Raticate is so well-trained!”
Seth laughs. “Well, we’ve been together a long time. You and your mother’s pokemon are both very well-trained too.”
And thanks him, and then he and Mom join together and walk out.
Their championship awards them a small medal - small enough that Ash could add it to his badge collection, which he intends to once they get back home - whenever that is. For now, though, he holds it close to his chest. Mom looks down at hers, rubbing her fingers over the metal. “Mom, look at what we did. Together. ”
She smiles, and it’s both soft and incredibly proud at the same time. Pride, he can see, in him, but also in herself and her pokemon. “Together,” she says, reverently.
They each get a medal to bestow on their pokemon, as well, which they proudly do. PIkachu chirps, saying that he’s so proud of all of them, and that he hasn’t had a good battle in a long time, and Ash pets his head, scratching between his ears where he likes it. Mom puts a medal on Ivy, too, before letting it climb onto her in celebration.
And then, after all of it is over, they walk out of the city. Surrounded by flowers and the May sun sinking below the horizon, medals resting against each of their chests, the metal warmed by the spring air.
Ash takes out his phone, and texts Gladion that he was named after a colorful flower. Within a few moments, he gets an angry response, and laughs his heart out.