Ash's Last Dance

Goodbyes

3rd Person POV

With Serena now joining their travel group, Ash and the others went back to the Pokémon Center to grab their things and set out.

Once they were there, they came across Drew, Solidad, and May, who were also getting ready to leave.

"Hi, guys!" May greeted when she saw the familiar faces. "You guys about to leave?"

"Yeah, we're just getting our stuff from our rooms. We'll be on the road in a few minutes," Ash replied, noticing Drew and Solidad behind May. The latter gave Ash a scowl, which went completely unnoticed by the raven-haired trainer.

"Oh yeah! I gotta pack my stuff!" Bonnie said, suddenly realizing.

"Seriously, Bonnie? I told you to pack your stuff up before going to bed last night!" Clemont scolded exasperatedly.

Bonnie gave him a sweet smile before running upstairs to get her things packed.

"Actually, I haven't packed my things yet either," Max said with a nervous smile, scratching the back of his head.

It was now May's turn to look at her younger sibling in disappointment. "Seriously, Max? You and Ash are starting to become more and more alike."

Ash immediately countered indignantly, "Hey! It's been a couple of years since I've done something like that."

Everyone laughed at the comment, as Ash had unintentionally exposed himself. Shaking his head with a small smile, he asked May where she was heading off to next.

"Well, the Shalour City Contest is in four days, so we're heading there and getting some rest before we head to Cyllage City for the Expo," she replied, having already planned all of this out beforehand.

"That means we'll see each other soon," Ash said with a smile. "We'll be there for the Expo as well as the Gym."

Hearing this, May grew a huge smile. "Really? That's great!" she said happily. She had begun to think that meeting Ash in Kalos would have been a one-time thing before they split up for the foreseeable future, but this gave her hope that maybe they could rekindle the embers of their previous journey, even if they wouldn't be traveling together.

"Alright, we're ready to go," Bonnie announced, walking back to the group with Max on her tail. She had her backpack on with Dedenne sitting in another bag slung over her shoulder. Max, on the other hand, had his single-strap backpack with his tent attached to the back, looking at Ash with excitement.

"Well then, I think it's time to stop wasting time and get going," Clemont said, looking at the others.

With that, everyone bid their goodbyes to each other, particularly with May, who made sure to let Max know not to do anything stupid while he was gone without her. After he begrudgingly accepted, she squeezed him with a strong hug before letting him go, watching as she saw her younger brother finally go on an adventure without her. It would be comforting for her to however, to know that Max would be under the eye of Ash, and there weren't many people she would trust more.

Once Ash and the rest of the group had made it to the outskirts of Santalune City, Clemont pulled out a map, figuring out which direction they needed to go.

"Looks like we're going to have to make our way through Route 6 before moving through the outskirts of Lumiose and going through Route 13 to get to Coumarine City," Clemont noted aloud, letting everyone know what the plan was.

"Wait, so can we make a pit stop at Professor Sycamore's Lab to get my starter?" Bonnie asked, anxious to finally start her personal Pokémon journey.

"Yeah, I'm sure we could make a pitstop for a couple of hours to get your Pokémon, Bonnie," Ash replied, looking at Clemont, who nodded in confirmation.

"Who are you going to pick?" Serena asked, curious about who Bonnie was eyeing.

"Well, I would pick Chespin, but Clemont already has one and I'm not going to copy him, so I'll probably end up taking either Froakie or Fennekin," Bonnie replied, scrunching her eyebrows in thought.

This led to Dawn speaking up as she watched Bonnie's indecision. "Well, if you're having a hard time deciding on who you want to pick, think about what you want to do as a Trainer and try to base your choice off of that. When I chose Piplup, I thought it would be a great Pokémon for coordinating, so I made my choice based on that," she said, remembering fondly her first day of getting lost trying to find Professor Rowan.

"But that's just it, I don't know what I want to do," Bonnie replied. "I think I just need to think it over for a while."

"Well, based on what I've seen, Chesnaught or Greninja look like they're the best Pokémon for battling. Plus, they look so cool," Max said with a dreamy face.

"You have to be the first person I've ever seen who's drooled over a Pokémon," Bonnie taunted, looking at Max's goofy face.

"Second for me," Dawn said with a laugh, poking Ash on the shoulder.

"Why am I the one always catching strays?" Ash groaned, annoyed.

"Because you do stupid things all the time," Dawn said with a fond smile.

"Well, actually, I like to think I did the stupid stuff back in Kanto and Johto. I can't remember anything too bad I've done recently."

Everyone deadpanned at Ash, even Serena, all remembering what he had just done in his last match at a Pokémon Conference.

"What?" Ash asked, confused.

Everyone shook their heads in dismay, chuckling at Ash's denseness.

"Let's just hope you don't bring back your old tendencies this time around," Dawn said with a chuckle as the group entered Route 6, moving along to their next stop at Lumiose City.

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A/N: 900 words.