Pokémon Version Orange

[AnInnocentBystander]

Welp! How's that for the end of our first technical tournament?! Fun? Exciting? Wholesome? Lived up to the hype?! (I'm so dearly hoping, lol.)

Click to shrink...

All of the above and then some, thank you for that! As much as I want Travis to go on to live the power-fantasy isekai journey where he disappears into the woods and comes out capable of defeating legendaries, the interaction with the various cast members really made this arc.

 

[Lewdhandholding]

Glad pichu won. You had me on the ropes.

 

[manuelhwang99]

Honestly, whatever prejudice my brain had seeing orange island insert, this shit blew it out the water and blasted off into space like team rocket man, like holy shit.

for some reason i realized i was expecting another opposite of show dont tell fic going "yeah this and that happened, i did these things, oh the family gathering? yeah i worked my ass off for it! cant forget about that staff guy john! yeah the orange league doesnt have any wimps as leaders and are actually proper badasses, just trust me bro!". the alternative was a gramatically and structurally badly written fic despite an interesting concept.

this shit had quality writing down to even character interactions (with a smidge of stereotype protagonism but i doubt anyone could be that good to make it entirely seemless) and i fucking love it.

if i had to say something missing in my checklist is how the other orange crew leaders are like, but thats just a matter of me waiting till we get there.

i find it funny/interesting ash got a poliwag. congrats to pikachu on evolving. tyftc

 

[IcurasFallen]

Honestly, whatever prejudice my brain had seeing orange island insert, this shit blew it out the water and blasted off into space like team rocket man, like holy shit.

for some reason i realized i was expecting another opposite of show dont tell fic going "yeah this and that happened, i did these things, oh the family gathering? yeah i worked my ass off for it! cant forget about that staff guy john! yeah the orange league doesnt have any wimps as leaders and are actually proper badasses, just trust me bro!". the alternative was a gramatically and structurally badly written fic despite an interesting concept.

this shit had quality writing down to even character interactions (with a smidge of stereotype protagonism but i doubt anyone could be that good to make it entirely seemless) and i fucking love it.

if i had to say something missing in my checklist is how the other orange crew leaders are like, but thats just a matter of me waiting till we get there.

i find it funny/interesting ash got a poliwag. congrats to pikachu on evolving. tyftc

Click to shrink...

Thank you so much! Always a morale boost to see someone wholeheartedly enjoy my writing, lol.

Also as far as the "protagonism" goes...well, everyone is the hero in their own story, yeah? And you will be happy to know that the orange crew will be making an appearance in the next arc! So look forward to that, lol.

Till then though, cheers!

 

[IcurasFallen]

Pokémon Version Orange

Arc 2 - The Summer


Chapter 20
​

---

Apparently, declaring camp officially over and actually getting everyone to leave were two very different things.

Professor Oak had barely finished the closing ceremony before the counselors began gathering campers by group again for one final piece of business:

Returning the temporary partners.

Which predictably put a noticeable damper on the celebratory mood.

Some campers handled it well enough. Others were a mess, clinging to Pokémon they'd known for barely a week like someone was trying to separate lifelong partners. There were tears, hugs, promises to visit, and more than one counselor standing around with the awkward expression of someone who had absolutely not signed up to emotionally devastate children for a living.

Serena and Spearow, for instance, had never really clicked in the first place, something that had become more obvious as the week went on. Spearow needed someone firmer and more forceful than Serena naturally was, while Serena had never seemed entirely comfortable pushing back against the bird's more abrasive personality. Neither of them disliked the other, but there was a pretty obvious difference between getting along and actually meshing as Trainer and Pokémon.

Their goodbye reflected that.

Serena was a little sad, Spearow tolerated a final bit of affection with all the dignity of something pretending it hadn't enjoyed any of it, and then the two separated without much drama.

Goh, on the other hand, was a bit more emotional than I think even he expected.

He'd spent most of the week insisting that Caterpie was only a temporary partner and acting like everyone else was reading too much into the fact that he'd started checking on Caterpie before himself, letting the Bug-type crawl all over him, and generally behaving suspiciously like someone who had gotten attached.

In the end, he didn't make a scene, but he was quieter than usual. He lingered before finally handing Caterpie back, and afterward, he watched the little Bug-type disappear with the counselors for noticeably longer than necessary before shoving his hands into his pockets and pretending he was perfectly fine.

Chloe, to her credit, didn't tease him once.

Then there was Ash, who had apparently decided that if enough determination was involved, the concept of a temporary partnership could simply be ignored.

Poliwag was pressed tightly against Ash's chest while the Water-type clung back with his little forelegs and tail. Amber stood a few feet away with her hands on her hips, wearing the increasingly strained patience of someone who had already tried explaining the situation several times.

"Come on, Ash," she said gently, "you knew from the beginning that Poliwag was only your partner for camp."

Ash's grip tightened. "B-But we make such a good team!"

"Poli..." Poliwag somehow managed to look equally miserable despite having considerably less face to work with.

Delia stepped closer and rested a hand against Ash's shoulder. "Sweetie, I know you've both grown close, but Poliwag isn't your Pokémon. You're not even a Trainer yet."

"But he's my partner!"

"For camp," Amber reminded him calmly. "Poliwag belongs to Professor Oak's Laboratory. We can't just let every camper take their partner home because they got attached."

Ash frowned down at Poliwag. "What if Poliwag wants to come with me?"

"Poli!" Poliwag buried himself harder against Ash's shirt. His opinion was obvious.

I had to look away for a second before I started laughing at the sheer tragedy of it all.

Delia crouched beside her son. "Ash, honey, I know this is hard, but you can't keep a Pokémon that isn't yours. Especially when you're not old enough to be a Trainer yet."

Ash's face scrunched up. "Only by a year! And Travis already has a Pokémon! So why can't I keep Poliwag!?"

His mother could only shake her head sadly. "Oh, Ash. It's not a matter of you being old enough..."

"Then what's the problem?!"

"The problem is that what you're doing right now shows that you aren't ready yet."

Everyone turned as Professor Oak approached from behind Amber, his hands tucked casually behind his back.

Ash immediately looked hopeful. "Professor!"

Oak stopped in front of him and glanced down at Poliwag, who suddenly looked considerably more sheepish now that the Pokémon's actual caretaker had arrived.

Professor Oak smiled mildly. "Tell me something, Ash. If I allowed you to take Poliwag home today, how would you take care of him?"

Ash blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, let's consider food. Pokémon need to eat every day. Different species have different nutritional needs, and growing Pokémon tend to eat quite a bit." Oak nodded toward Poliwag. "How do you plan to provide that?"

Ash opened his mouth, paused, then glanced toward his mother. "Mom could..."

Delia immediately shook her head. "No, sweetie. If Poliwag was your Pokémon, then he'd be your responsibility. I'd obviously help if something happened, but you can't decide you're ready to care for a Pokémon because you expect me to buy his food, medicine, and everything else he needs."

Ash's shoulders slowly drooped.

Professor Oak continued gently. "Registered Trainers have ways of earning money while traveling. Prize money from sanctioned battles, League programs, temporary work, and quite a few other options. And while you could take a part-time job around town…well, are you truly willing to put in the work required?"

Ash looked increasingly miserable as he stared down at Poliwag. Then his eyes suddenly brightened.

"I could find food!" Ash perked up, apparently encouraged by having discovered a loophole. "We learned how to do that all week! I know which Berries are safe, and how to find clean water, and some Pokémon can eat plants and stuff from the wild!"

"Ash..." Delia began.

"And I could learn what Poliwag eats! Professor Oak has books about that, right? I could read them!"

Amber rubbed at her forehead. "Ash, that's not really the point."

"But I could do it!"

"Ash."

"I'd try really hard!"

"Ash!"

Poliwag chirped enthusiastically in support, which did absolutely nothing to help.

Delia closed her eyes tiredly while Amber's remaining patience visibly threatened to abandon her altogether.

Then Professor Oak chuckled, causing everyone to look at him in surprise. "I must admit, Ash, your persistence is impressive."

Ash immediately brightened.

"But that was not permission."

His shoulders dropped again.

The eldest Oak laughed softly before crouching down in front of him. "What it does tell me, however, is just how much you care about Poliwag. And that's certainly not something I want to discourage." Professor Oak nodded toward the Pokémon in his arms. "Poliwag may not be your Pokémon, but that doesn't mean the two of you have to stop being friends simply because camp has ended."

"You live in Pallet Town after all," the Professor continued with a growing smile. "My Laboratory is hardly on the other side of Kanto. You're welcome to come visit Poliwag whenever you have the time."

Ash's eyes widened.

"Really?!"

"Poli?!"

"Of course." Professor Oak's smile turned just a touch more mischievous. "Although, if you're going to spend so much time around the Laboratory, I imagine I could find a few chores for you to help with every now and then."

Ash's excitement faltered, and his expression twisted into something complicated as the words chores and Poliwag apparently went to war inside his head.

Poliwag, meanwhile, had no such conflict.

"Poli! Poliwag!" The Water-type practically bounced out of Ash's arms in excitement.

Ash looked down at him, toward Professor Oak, then at Poliwag again.

"...How many chores?"

Delia covered a laugh.

Professor Oak's eyes twinkled. "I'm sure we can negotiate."

I rather suspected Professor Oak had just found himself a very enthusiastic new helper.

After that, the rest of the evening began winding down fairly quickly.

Goh and Chloe were the first of our little group to leave, their families gathering together near Professor Cerise as a courier Alakazam prepared to Teleport them back to Vermilion.

There were the usual promises to keep in touch, though Ash naturally handled most of those at maximum volume.

"You guys better come back to Pallet sometime!"

Goh folded his arms. "Obviously. I still need to check the area around Professor Oak's Lab, after all."

Chloe gave him a flat look. "And actually spend time with our friends?"

"That too."

I snorted while Ash immediately started arguing that visiting his friends should come before Pokémon hunting.

Chloe ignored both of them and moved around the group, giving Serena and Ash hugs before surprising me with one of my own.

"You had better not ghost us," she warned as she stepped back.

I couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Wasn't planning on it."

"Good."

Goh was considerably less enthusiastic about physical affection, settling for an awkward wave before Ash grabbed his hand and turned it into something halfway between a handshake and a fist bump.

"Next time we meet, I'm gonna know way more about Pokémon than you!"

Goh's eyes immediately narrowed. "No chance."

There we go. The universe was back in balance.

A few minutes later, their glorified taxi service vanished with the Vermilion group in a flash of Psychic light.

Serena and Grace followed not long afterward, heading back toward Viridian. Delia made a point of telling them both that they were welcome to visit Pallet whenever they were nearby, while Grace received an enthusiastic wish of good luck in her upcoming Rhyhorn races. I wished Serena similar luck with all the training that would inevitably come with having a professional racer for a mother, earning me a tired pout in return.

"You're supposed to wish me luck, not remind her."

Grace barked out a laugh, the Rhyhorn that would carry them home snorting in amusement with her. "Too late, sweetie! I've already got some new training ideas~"

Serena groaned.

Ash, meanwhile, seemed far more concerned with making sure she actually came back. "You better visit too, Serena!"

Her annoyance instantly disappeared. "I will!"

Serena gave all of us one last wave before climbing onto Rhyhorn behind her mother, turning around twice more to wave before yelping as Grace sent their mount charging down the road with a gleeful shout.

I watched Serena and Grace disappear down the road before turning toward Mom. "So, are we heading out tonight?"

Mom froze before letting out a strangely strained laugh. "Haha, um, Delia actually invited us over for dinner!"

I stared at her. She seemed rather…flustered.

Before I could properly decide what to say, however, a loud growl came from my shoulder.

I slowly turned my head. Pikachu stared back at me with complete innocence.

Another rumble came from his stomach.

I snorted and reached up to scratch beneath his chin. "You are an absolute glutton."

"Pika." He didn't even attempt to argue. Considering what he'd put himself through today, though, I couldn't exactly blame him.

I sighed and looked back at Mom. "Fine. Dinner it is."

---

The Ketchum home wasn't large, but it didn't need to be.

The two-story house sat comfortably among Pallet's open fields, all pale siding, a red roof, and the sort of small front garden that looked like it had been maintained by someone who genuinely enjoyed doing it. Inside was much the same. Nothing was particularly expensive or extravagant, but everything felt warm and lived-in, from the family photographs scattered around the walls to the little signs of its occupants that had spread into practically every room.

Admittedly, it felt considerably less spacious once you added two guests and several Pokémon. Especially when one of those Pokémon was Momo.

Thankfully, the dining area opened into the living room enough that nobody was actually sitting on top of each other. Mom and I had joined Delia and Ash around the actual table while the Pokémon spread themselves around us, each with their own bowl or plate.

And somehow, Delia had managed to feed all of them, and not with the same generic Pokémon food tossed into seven bowls either!

Alakazam had been given something light and mildly sweet, while Momo's portion could probably have fed us four humans by itself. Bliss had gotten a softer mix with plenty of fruit, Marowak's meal had considerably more crunch to it, Farfy and Sandy had each gotten meals tailored toward their own preference for sour flavors, and Pikachu had been presented with a plate that leaned heavily toward the sharper, more bitter flavors he'd always preferred even before evolving.

Mom took another bite of her own meal before making a pleased sound. "Delia, this is really good."

Delia smiled brightly. "You think so?"

"Absolutely. And I'm not just talking about ours." Mom gestured toward the small army of Pokémon happily eating around the room. "You barely know most of them, and somehow you got everyone's preferences perfectly!" Mom's team obviously agreed as they gave Delia approving nods and pleased noises.

Delia flushed a bit at all the praise. "Well, you pick up a few things after cooking for so long. And I did study under Professor Oak for a few years before settling down."

"She's not exaggerating," I said, heaping in my own praise after swallowing a spoonful of stew. "I've eaten at the Seven Stars Restaurant before, and this could hold its own."

Her flush grew. "T-The Seven Stars? Isn't that one of the most famous restaurants in Sinnoh?!"

"Multiregionally famous, actually," Mom corrected with a grin. "It's family-run, so we've been more than a few times over the years. Means we know what we're talking about~"

"Well..." Delia tried and failed to hide how pleased she was. "Thank you."

Ignoring us all, Ash had apparently decided utensils were an obstacle rather than a tool and was tearing through dinner with the enthusiasm of a starving Poochyena.

His mother pouted at him. "Ash! Slow down, we have guests!"

He froze with his cheeks bulging before performing an almost anime worry swallow. He grinned sheepishly at her. "Sorry Mom! I just really missed your cooking!"

Delia's expression melted. "Oh, Ash."

I snorted.

Ash glanced toward me. "What?"

"Nothing." I took another bite. "Just enjoy it while you can. You'll have to get used to going without it when you start your Journey next year."

Ash froze, and I swear I could see a bit of horror enter his eyes as he realized I was right.

Not that I really had any right to judge. I'd been very spoiled when it came to food over the years.

Between the five-star resort of a home, family meetups, and relatives who considered gourmet cooking a competitive sport, my baseline for food had become embarrassingly high. The day I finally started traveling full-time and had to rely on whatever I could carry, cook over a campfire, or pick up in whatever town happened to be nearby was going to be a dark one.

Ash suddenly leaned halfway across the table.

"Wait! I start my Journey next year?!"

I leaned back at his excitement. Why did he seem so surprised? I would have figured someone like Ash would be counting down the days till his Journey.

Delia winced and quickly provided an answer for the confusion. "No, sweetie, you'll be waiting another two years."

I stared at her. Even Mom paused long enough to look at her in confusion.

Ash looked personally betrayed. "Two years?!"

Delia sighed. "Ash, you only turned nine a few weeks ago."

"Yeah, but Trainers can start at ten!"

"I know, sweetie. But you'll turn ten after the next League season has already begun. You'd have to wait until the following season to properly register and start since we're still planning for you to be one of Professor Oak's sponsored trainers."

Ash slowly deflated in his chair like someone had opened a valve.

I frowned. "Huh."

I'd always known Ash started his Journey at ten. It was the minimum age, and the series had made it a point of mentioning his near-immortal age-ten status a lot.

I'd just never considered exactly when during that year his birthday fell.

Ash turned to me. "When do you turn ten?"

I couldn't help the smug smile that spread across my face. "Next month."

His jaw dropped. "What?! That's not fair!"

I laughed. "How exactly is my birthday unfair?"

"Because you already have a Starter!"

At the mention of his title, Pikachu lifted his head from his food with several crumbs stuck to his cheeks. I chuckled and reached down to rub between his ears. "Yeah, well, I got lucky."

Pikachu chirped happily before immediately returning to eating. Normally I might have told him to slow down, but after everything he'd done today, he could eat until he rolled home for all I cared.

Ash slumped farther over the table. "That's so unfair. You get to start early, and you already have Starter..."

I shrugged and raised another spoonful of the frankly delicious stew. "Life's unfair sometimes, deal with it."

Ash pouted.

Mom suddenly clapped, cutting off Ash's pity party. "Oh! Speaking of next month!" I looked toward her, immediately suspicious of that level of enthusiasm. She smiled brightly across the table. "Ash, Delia, you two should come to Travis's birthday!"

I nearly choked on my food.

Ash perked up immediately. "Really?!"

"Of course!"

Finally clearing my throat, I gave her a half-lidded stare. "Mom, isn't the person whose birthday it is generally supposed to be the one inviting people?"

She turned toward me with an innocent expression that fooled absolutely nobody. "Were you not going to invite them?"

I opened my mouth, then stopped.

That was an annoyingly complicated question. Especially with said people sitting right there.

Mom's eyebrow climbed a little higher as my silence stretched, and I frowned at the increasingly smug look on her face. She'd raised a polite young man, and she knew it, dammit.

"Besides, it'd be pretty mean not to invite your brother," she added casually.

The words almost passed me by.

Then my brain caught up and stalled.

Across the table, Ash blinked before immediately blurting, "We're not brothers!"

He said it with the automatic exasperation of someone who'd already been forced to correct that particular misunderstanding far too many times. Mom's eyes flicked toward Delia, and that was when I noticed she was looking rather hesitant herself.

Ash pointed between the two of us. "People kept saying that at camp because we look alike, but we're not! Mom would've told me if I had a brother!"

Delia outright winced.

Ash noticed immediately, his hand slowly lowering as his expression shifted from indignant to confused. "...Mom?"

Delia carefully set her fork down. She looked first at Ash, then at me, and what I saw in her expression made me realize what she was about to say before she actually said it.

"Ash," she said slowly, "You two…you are brothers."

Silence settled over the table.

I looked at Ash.

Ash looked at me.

And for perhaps the first time since we'd met, we were on the same wavelength.

"WHAT?!"

Mom immediately burst into giggles.

Delia, meanwhile, winced at the combined shout and lifted both hands as though she could somehow calm us down before either of us started yelling again.

"Okay, okay," Mom managed between laughs. "Maybe we should've eased you two into that a little better."

"Ya think?!"

Ash was still staring at me like I'd spontaneously grown another head. "How are we brothers?!"

Mom finally got herself under control, although the smile stubbornly remained. "Half-brothers, technically. You share the same father."

My expression tightened before I could stop it.

That...yeah, I probably should have figured that was the case.

Trainer culture had always produced some...interesting family structures.

It wasn't exactly difficult to understand why. When entire regions were built around sending young people out to travel for months or years at a time, often with barely more supervision than the occasional Nurse Joy and whatever Pokémon they'd managed to catch, you couldn't realistically expect every relationship formed on the road to end cleanly. Older teenage Trainers especially spent enormous stretches of time moving from town to town, meeting people, falling in and out of relationships, and generally making the sort of decisions teenagers had been making since humanity figured out hormones.

Occasionally, those decisions came with consequences.

Single-parent households weren't exactly rare. Neither were children whose other parent had continued traveling, settled somewhere else, or simply never became much more than a name on a birth certificate. Add in the inherent dangers of Pokémon training and wilderness travel, and orphans weren't exactly unheard of.

I'd always known I fell somewhere in the first category.

Mom had already finished her own Journey by the time I came along and had apparently hit the stage in her life where the desire for a kid had gone from the occasional thought to actively trying to solve it. Then some stereotypical wandering Trainer blew through the area, the two of them hit it off well enough to spend a night together, and by morning he'd continued on his merry way without either of them apparently expecting anything more from the encounter.

Several months later, Mom got me out of the deal.

Considering how enthusiastically she'd thrown herself into motherhood, I suspected she considered that a pretty favorable trade-off.

I'd never been particularly bothered by it. Mom had never spoken about the man with heartbreak or resentment, and she'd certainly never acted like our family was somehow incomplete without him. She'd wanted a child; she had one, and everything I'd ever seen suggested she was perfectly satisfied with how things had worked out.

Admittedly, I'd never really considered the possibility that he'd left similar surprises scattered around the world. Which, in hindsight, was probably pretty stupid.

Or maybe I was focusing on all of that because it was considerably easier than properly processing the fact that Ash Ketchum was my fucking brother.

Across the table, Ash looked between our mothers with his brows furrowed. "Wait...Dad?"

Delia's expression softened. "Remember what I've told you about your father, sweetheart? That he was a Trainer?"

Ash nodded slowly.

"Well..." She hesitated, clearly choosing her words carefully. "Sometimes people who spend most of their lives traveling have a hard time settling down. Your father was very focused on being a Trainer, and that meant he wasn't really interested in staying in one place long enough to...well, help raise a family."

Ash frowned. "So he just left?"

Delia's smile turned a little strained.

Before she could answer, Mom leaned forward slightly. "Ash, can I ask you something?"

That earned her a confused look from Delia, but Ash nodded.

"Do you love your mom?"

Ash looked even more confused by the question. "Of course!"

"Would you say you're happy with her?"

"Well, duh!"

Mom smiled. "Okay, final question, and I need you to really think about it. Do you think having a dad would make you happier, even though your Mom is already so wonderful?"

That one actually made Ash pause.

He looked down at his plate for several seconds, his face scrunching slightly as he considered the question far more seriously than before. Eventually, he gave a small shrug. "I guess it'd be kinda nice."

"But I'm okay!" Ash added quickly, looking up at his mom, who was biting her lip with a complicated expression on her face. "I've got Mom, and Professor Oak's always around, and Auntie Owens and Uncle Tango help when Mom's working, and everybody else in town knows me anyway." His smile came back with typical Ash speed. "So if Dad wanted to keep traveling and being a Trainer, then...whatever! That's his dream. I'm gonna follow mine too someday!"

Something in my chest tightened.

"That's not really the same thing."

Everyone looked toward me.

Ash blinked. "Huh?"

I set my spoon down a little harder than necessary. "There's nothing wrong with chasing a dream, Ash, but that doesn't mean you get to ignore what happens to everyone else because of it."

Mom's expression turned complicated. She clearly understood where I was going with this.

I continued anyway.

"If he wanted to keep traveling, fine. But what about the people he left behind? What if Mom had wanted him around? What if your mom did?" I glanced briefly toward Delia and caught the small wince she failed to hide. "You don't get to hurt people and then call it okay just because you were following your dream."

"Travis."

Mom's voice wasn't loud, but the warning was obvious. A long-fingered hand briefly settled against my shoulder from behind, and I didn't need to look to know Al was giving me one of his irritatingly knowing looks.

I exhaled through my nose and leaned back.

I was mature enough to know I was projecting.

It wasn't as though I'd spent nine years staring longingly out a window wondering when Daddy was coming home. I'd never met the man. I didn't miss him because there was nothing there to miss, and Mom had given me more than enough love for several parents combined.

But there was still something fundamentally idiotic about not taking precautions to prevent this exact situation. That kind of protection was even more advanced in this life than in my last one!

Ash was quiet for a surprisingly long time as he mulled over my words.

Finally, he just shrugged again. "I dunno. I'm still gonna follow my dream."

I raised a brow.

Ash straightened in his chair, some of his usual energy returning. "I'm gonna become the best there ever was! A Pokémon Master! I wanna meet every kind of Pokémon and become friends with Pokémon all over the world!" His expression scrunched slightly. "So...I'd be a pretty bad friend if I let doing that make me hurt everybody I met, right?"

I blinked.

That was…huh.

A chuckle escaped me as I shook my head. Ash had managed to take something I'd been mentally dissecting from six different directions and reduce it down to the part that actually mattered.

"You know what? You're right." I shot him a crooked grin. "Guess that just means you're gonna have to be as good a friend as you are a Trainer."

Ash immediately beamed. "That's the plan!"

Still, after a moment, he looked between our mothers before glancing back at me. "And, even if it is a little sad Dad didn't wanna stick around...well, at least something good came out of it."

I tilted my head. "What?"

Ash's grin grew.

"I got a brother."

Something warm settled in my chest.

It wasn't dramatic. No sudden revelation that my life had secretly been missing something all along, and I certainly wasn't about to start getting misty-eyed over a kid I'd known for barely a week.

Still...

Ash was looking at me like he'd just discovered something genuinely worth being happy about, and despite everything else currently rattling around inside my head, I couldn't quite stop the smile that grew.

Click.

I blinked before slowly turning toward the sound.

Delia was sitting there with a camera and one of the brightest smiles I'd seen on her all evening.

"Did you just take a picture of us?"

"Of course I did!" She glanced down at the camera with obvious satisfaction. "It's your first picture together as brothers!"

My eye twitched.

Mom leaned across the table. "Oooh, let me see!"

"Mom," I groaned.

"Oh, don't be like that, babycakes. I just want a copy."

I shook my head in betrayal. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"I am on your side." Her grin widened. "That's why I'm getting it framed."

Pikachu burst into laughter. Many of the other Pokémon and Ash followed in the face of my exasperation.

I sighed into my palm, unable to completely suppress my own smile.

Yeah, this was going to take some getting used to.

---

Author's Note:

Welp, just about all of you called this, so congrats on being able to see the obvious. You may put the string boards away, lol.

And finally, we reach the end of Arc 2! Hope you all have enjoyed the story so far. I've got a few people who have admitted that they didn't enjoy the Summer Arc, but I felt it was a good way to help set up future events.

Until next time. Cheers!

Hope it's not too presumptuous, but I've got a up and running! If you want to read 5 chapters ahead or just support me in general, feel free to visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / IcurasFallen

 

[manuelhwang99]

Hell yeah

 

[Agnam]

Mom finally got herself under control, although the smile stubbornly remained. "Half-brothers, technically. You share the same father."

My expression tightened before I could stop it.

That...yeah, I probably should have figured that was the case.

Click to shrink...

I don't suppose the deadbeat in-question happens to wear a red cap and a name matching the color?

 

[GameJunkie999]

I don't suppose the deadbeat in-question happens to wear a red cap and a name matching the color?

Click to shrink...

Nah Red in any media isnt that slick.

 

[WanderingDragon]

So be honest with us, how many of the other Ash clones are actually related to him?

 

[IcurasFallen]

So be honest with us, how many of the other Ash clones are actually related to him?

Click to shrink...

I will neither confirm nor deny~

Let's it remain a fun little surprise for yall after all. Never know when he's gonna potentially run into another "clone" and deal with the inevitable question of "oh shit, is this another one?!"

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter
I Definitely didn't consider that of what Ash Ketchum cannon event birth date falls on ,which the series constantly emphasizes, despite Ash Ketchum losing canonical Pokémon competence during each reset in another region, besides pissed off long term fans across the seasoned Pokémon generations.
Although, Travis is going on his journey next week and Ash Ketchum is waiting another 2 years his to start.
The Journey continues
Cheers!

 

[marakag]

I am guessing that it is aranged this way so Travis can come to Kanto after finishing the orange league

 

[SpaceWhale]

Wasn't there Ritchie(who looked exactly like ash) I think his name was that beat Ash because his Charizard wouldnt listen to him.