Not Listening Has Its Advantages

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon, a creation of one Satoshi Tajiri, and is produced domestically (in the United States) by Pokemon USA/The Pokemon Company, and internationally by Shogakukan and OLM. I personally own nothing and make nothing by writing this. Please do not flame.

(Chapter 3- First Date: Part Two)

The dinner at Icicle does not need to come quickly in order to satisfy the young couple. After all, Zoey and Ash have quite a bit to discuss and little time to do it. The restaurant is known for excellent service as they have quickly found out with Erin.

"This night has been…great so far," Ash comments. "I couldn't have thought that this night would be this nice. It's nothing terribly exciting, earth shattering, but it feels right. You know when things just feel right and you can't exactly say why?"

Before answering the question, Zoey chuckles for a bit. It appears that Ash is hitting at a personal point that she knows quite well herself. "I know the feeling. It's like when I put on a good-fitting tuxedo and head out to a contest house and do my thing, you know? I don't know what it was that brought on this love for pokemon coordinating, but when I'm out there, it feels like this is where I belong right here and right now. That's the feeling that I am getting right now with you on my first date."

"You feel like this is where you belong?"

"Absolutely," she claims. "But I gotta say that I get chills when I think about it all, to be honest. The fact is all of this is new and different than just me traveling alone and being on my own. It's a good 'different', though. I look forward to us talking on the phone for as long as…two hours a day or night. I've got something besides my…I hate to call it work, but that's what I do for a living is coordinate and I have something that I can anticipate doing every day."

"Will you look at Zoey over there, Dawn?" Brock asks her while they look over at the other table in their disguises. "She certainly has a lot of emotion inside of her that she letting out. And Ash is doing the best thing he can do given the circumstances…he's listening, or at least pretending to listen." This commentary from Brock earns him a slap on the shoulder from his eating buddy at the other end of their table.

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course he is listening to her! He'd better, or Zoey will let out more than just her emotions. Trust me on this one, Brock! I've been around the girl long enough to know that even though she's got a temper if you test her. She saw this trainer from her hometown of Snowpoint City who had this odd name. Give me a second, I think it was," it takes five times more time than Dawn thinks it would to come up with the name, but she finally understands that the name of the person in question was, "Tolon Wilkes. Brock, when Zoey saw Tolon on the television screen in a contest some months ago she got really ticked off. I wanted to ask her what it was about that boy that drew her ire so much, but…I didn't want to press her at all."

"That reminds me of Ash. Not a little bit, but a lot," Brock comments, interrupting Dawn. "I can remember when he just started out. He'd get ticked off easily if you get on his bad side, question his abilities as a trainer or his love for his pokemon. He's not immune to that, either, and that's one thing that makes them a lot alike."

"Look, Brock!" she says, pointing at the scene and trying her best to hold in her excitement. "Ash just gave Zoey a kiss on the cheek! Aw, how sweet," she dreamily coos. "That's what it's all about, Brock."

"I bet you dream about a moment like that with Kenny, right?"

Raising her eyebrows like the promise for better salaries for the middle class, Dawn eyes her much older friend tentatively before she starts to chuckle like her friend did before her. This chuckle turns into an out and out laugh as the coordinator from Twinleaf Town apparently found a serious remark from Brock equitable to a stand-up comedian at a club.

"Oh, man!" she says through her laughter. It seems as if nothing will keep her from continuing to let her emotions out either but eventually, the moment happens and Dawn is left to explain why she found an innocent question from Brock to be so hilarious.

"Are you kidding me? Look, Brock. No offense meant to Kenny at all. I love him like the brother I've never had, but…that's the exact reason why I don't see myself getting involved with him right now. It does not feel right to me, and I know you know what that means. The sad thing about it is that he tries to make this big impression on me wherever we go. He thinks I don't notice it, but I'm not as much of a ditz as people take me for."

"I guess we're all learning that the more time we spend around you. But—and forgive me if I'm going too deep with this, but is there someone you are involved with at all or are interested in?"

"Not really," Dawn admits. "This might be a bad metaphor, but…I'm the type of person where I don't find trouble but trouble always seems to find me."

"So you're not one who is keen on waiting for love?"

"Why? If there is a person out there for all of us, then I think it's almost pointless. Not to mention the fact that…well I'm only ten years old, Brock. I'm not in any kind of rush or wanting to set some sort of record in finding a boyfriend. I know Zoey is only a year older, but obviously many more years mature and better equipped to handle someone like Ash."

"Well, not everyone is ready at the same time," Brock agrees. "There are people twice my age who aren't ready for romance so for you to not be ready is something that I really should not be surprised."

"Brock, listen to this!" Dawn says, pointing at the table where Ash and Zoey sit. "I think that they mentioned our names. We might be getting somewhere?"

"Pardon me, miss," speaks the spying duo's arrogant waiter. "You had your hand up in the air. Is there something that you wanted like, say…yet another bottle of ketchup? This would be your third bottle, you know, and you haven't even been served your main course yet."

Still turned off by the very snooty attitude of their server, Dawn does not show any intimidation on the fact that her waiter is so perturbed after they both asked him for multiple bottles of the red tomato paste for Ash's signature pokemon. "Well, Matthew…"

"It's Matt to you, little girl."

"Very well, Mattie.

Growling, he leaves the table without even considering that the young lady might need some service. This lends Dawn to even more praise from her much older partner in travel.

At another part of the restaurant, another partnership is not feeling any sort of arrogance or sarcasm at their table. All that is happening is a discussion of great importance.

"So I can honestly say that…I want to travel with you. Talking long hours on the phone have been nice, but can that last?"

"The question is can this last, Zoey?" Ash responds. "I don't know if we even give ourselves a chance if we don't live together and see how this works out. I'm glad that I didn't have to ask you if you wanted to join, but no matter how we came to this decision, I had a feeling you would say yes to my question of whether or not you wanted to travel with me. You know, it goes without saying that I'm glad that you want to do it…"

"Umm hate to interrupt, Ash," Zoey begins, "but I wanna get something straight; I do wanna travel with you but I can't do that. I can't do that right away, that is. I'll need about a week to update some information in my personal files, inform some people, modify some of my contact information and emergency forms with the government and then I can go. Believe me, if I had the choice, I'd pack up and go with you right now, but the process is not as easy as one might think. That's the reason why I didn't say anything to you until now. Mom, dad and a few others helped me out and told me that I just can't make this change without going through a bunch of red tape, which is not what I want, but a necessary evil."

"I see," he laconically answers. One would get the feeling that the process will take a long time and keep him from the person he loves, but Zoey seems to have left out one important factor. In fact, she missed the most important factor. "How long will all of this take to finalize, Zoey?"

"Maybe a week or two at the most. Wait, I thought I said that! Oh, man! I'm sorry. I had you worried over…nothing really."

"No, it's fine. I don't care if it took a month or two, it'll be well worth the wait. And, I know you don't mind Dawn and Brock being there with us, right?"

"Oh, absolutely not! I'd love it if both of them could be there with us!"

"Great!" Holding up his glass, he asks Zoey, "So may we toast to it?"

"Indeed!" she answers as they bring their glasses of their drinks together and consume whatever is remaining before their waitress comes a few minutes later with a refill of chocolate cream for Ash and strawberry cream for Zoey.

At this point, there is nothing. Nothing but the talking, light music and the conversations around them are making the restaurant come alive because neither party at the small table knows what else to say. Taking sly glances down at the ground, it does not take long for someone to realize that Ash is debating whether or not he should use this time to give Zoey her gift. He heard from everyone that he spoke to before the date that any gifts given should be saved until the end or near the end of the date.

It is this time in which he decides to not listen to what everyone says. "Hey, Zoey. I have something to give you," and then he reaches down in the direction of the bag. The young coordinator had a feeling that her much older boyfriend had something in the bag for her, even if he did not say it outright.

The bag is a white one with similarly-colored handles and while handing it to Zoey, Ash tells her to "Go ahead. Open it." She does so, and at the bottom of the bag, she finds a large, black velvet box. It is far too large for a single ring, but not shaped properly for a necklace or even a bracelet.

Sitting and thinking about its contents will not get her anywhere. Like Ash said to her, it is best that she open it and find out for herself. Setting the box open, she finds what appears to be a pendant in the center of this jewelry. There is no doubt about what this is in Zoey's mind. "It's a locket!"

"That's right," he affirms. "Now open it."

Using great care to remove the object from its holding place, Zoey looks for the clasp on the side of the locket and opens it to find two pictures at first glance. These two include Zoey with her pokemon along with Aipom, who now belongs to Dawn and an additional picture of Ash.

"Oh, how sweet!" Zoey says, blushing at the gift given to her.

"I see your looking at Aipom and myself, but take a look at the other side of the locket." Heeding the words of Ash, Zoey takes another look at the locket to see that it is double clasped. Opening this second clasp, she sees a picture of herself along with two of her pokemon and Aipom in the photo booth. The other side of the locket, which is the final possible spot for any photos, is vacant with no photo in place.

"Why is one of these empty, Ash?"

"It's for our picture together, Zoey. In the time we've been together, I noticed that we've never taken one with just the two of us in it."

"You're right," she answers as she puts the locket around her neck, wearing it for the night along with another necklace she wears more often than not.

"Do they take pictures here at Icicle?"

"Yeah, but they only do that in via a request. Once we finish our dinner, we can ask Erin about a photo and…we can call it a night if you want."

"Sounds great to me," Ash questions. Even though he posed the inquiry, he doesn't get an answer as their server Erin comes back to their table with their main courses. Ash gets his plate first, which consists of jumbo lump crab cakes, creamed spinach and lemon-pepper rice. Scant seconds after Ash gets his serving, Zoey gets her plate of surf and turf in a large sirloin steak and several tailfin shrimp.

Once both plates are placed on the table, Erin asks the pair, "Is there anything else that I can get for you before I leave?" Zoey and Ash can't think of anything, so Erin leaves them to their dishes asking that they enjoy their meals.

"Wow, all of this looks so good!" Zoey exclaims. "I can't remember the last time I've had great surf and turf. The other places in the region are nice and everything, but nothing really can compare to home."

"Tell me about it!" Ash concurs. "To give you an idea of that theory being put to test, I'm on the road…pretty much all year long, but I always, always look forward to mom's cooking. I know everyone says this about their mom, but no one can cook like my mom. I'd put her works up against anyone else."

"I don't know, Ash, but it sounds like you want me to come home and partake in this food of your mother's."

"That's right. Can you blame me? Mom…makes so much that our neighbors often get more of her home cooking than I do. She really wants to see you and I want you to see my mom. She'll love you, I know it deep down she will love you, Zoey."

"I hope so. I mean, moms will tease their kids. Not meaning it or anything, but it happens, right?"

Ash raises his eyebrows for the slightest of seconds at that remark from his girlfriend. "I guess," he says.

Shaking her head, she feels herself going off into a tangent she does not want to approach. "In any event, I know that this week is set aside so that you can see my folks and relatives and they can see you after tomorrow's contest. They…they'll like you too. They're not that hard to get along with, it's just that my family is real big and real critical. We're all a bunch of big overachievers and it's a family of professors, doctors, lawyers, business heads and the like. Yet my mother and father tell me that there is no pressure on me to graduate from college with honors after coordinating and continue on in the Aiken family tradition."

"Wow! Your family is…accomplished to say very little. Hold on; does your family—how do I say this? How badly did you want to coordinate growing up?"

"I have loved the sport since I was four years old," she explains. "Mom thought that it was nothing more than a hobby and treated it as such. She equated it to easy money and would say that anyone could call out commands for a pokemon. Until she saw that there was more to it than that, I faced a lot of opposition with me traveling alone on a journey."

"That's rough, Zoey. I'm lucky to have my mother be so supportive of me wherever my journey takes me."

"Well, this story does have a happy ending, Ash. Mom came with my dad to an unsanctioned contest in Sandgem Town. Team Galactic operatives were there at the time and they wanted to take Glameow from me. I fought this one operative who was a little bit older than I am. Her name was…a planet? Mars! That was her name. Either way, I'd beat her into a pulp before I ever let her have Glameow, Misdreavus or any of my pokemon, and that's exactly what I did. Mars turned very red that day from more than just embarrassment from getting her butt kicked by me. Mom saw something that day which I should have showed her from the very beginning. My mother saw the bond that I share with all of my pokemon and knew that coordinating is something I take very seriously. At the same time though, there was a selfish reason for me wanting to go on a journey so badly. I felt like I had to branch out and make a name for myself in my family. With so many people who have had a great deal of success doing what they love, I wanted to continue in the tradition."

"Yeah, but I don't see how that's selfish in any way. You want to be your own person but it's hard to do that in a family that has done so many great things. That's more you being you and coming into your own than defying…the family way. You're growing up, Zoey, and you are being your own individual. Your mom seeing the care that you have for your pokemon is a large part of that, so don't beat yourself up about expectations. You have plenty of time to decide what you really want to do the rest of your career."

Looking from afar, Dawn is really taken by the conversation Zoey and Ash are having. For the near year that Zoey and Dawn have shared a great friendship, the older of the two has always proven to be a confident, self-assured individual. But with the star trainer in front of her at the table, she opens up in a way she has not seen before. Whatever the Pallet Town resident is doing and however he seems to make Zoey so comfortable that she will speak of her own family like she is at the moment is grabbing at her attention and causing her to block everything else.

"Hey, Dawn?" Brock says, putting his hand into the girl's face in the hopes that that will send her back. "Earth to Dawn Berlitz!" Not even this technique works, and Brock concedes to just yelling out a very blunt, "Yo!" to the young coordinator.

That gets her attention and then some as she asks Brock why he called out to her the way he did. "You haven't eaten a bite of your lobster and scallops. You've just been watching Zoey over there with Ash. I don't think we really need to pry in what they're saying anymore. We know that when they travel together, they'll take us along so that's good."

"I just…I wish that I could hear Ash say these things when I had that real big hang up in my coordinating earlier this year before the Wallace Cup," Dawn speaks. "He seems to bring out the best of whoever he's with. I'm seeing a side of Zoey that…I never even knew existed, Brock. It's making me wonder, that's all. Can't I wonder?"

"That's your right as a person, Dawn," Brock concurs, "but the fact is that you can't spend all of your time wondering when your moment will come or wondering when a guy will enter your life. You can wonder but not for long."

"Yeah, but it's not bad for me to want something like that and to want to…share the intimate details with someone. I want that, but I don't need to have it right now, you know what I mean? I see the two of them there and they are…like an example to live by. If there were a reason why I want to see Zoey and Ash, it would be to see how the two of them grow. That's not…I'm not going beyond my role as a friend by doing that, am I?"

"No way, you're fine. I'm just worried as a friend and so are you. I wanted to see how my man would do in the dating scene for the very first time, and I think he's hitting it out of the park."

"Brock, look at this! Now they're feeding each other! How sweet!"

Taking a look, Brock sees the scene, almost reminiscent of legendary moments in film and television where couples would do the same. "How is Ash feeding Zoey when he has those huge crab cakes? In all the years I've known him, he's never been one to part ways with delicacies like that."

"In all the years you've known him," Dawn counters, "he hasn't had a girlfriend. Think about it."

"Good point." And speaking of points, at this point, Brock can hear the light but clear sound of squeaking that can only come from a mouse.

"Pikachu! Shhh! Please be quiet, you're gonna get us in trouble. You know they don't allow pokemon in here that aren't in their pokeballs!" she warns the yellow electric mouse while peeking underneath the bright, white tablecloth. Looking down at the ground, she sees the four empty ketchup bottles and the eyes of the battle-tested pokemon start to cloud up with water and can't help but chuckle for a bit. "Don't worry. I promise that Brock and I will get you some more ketchup before the night is over." This guarantee from the coordinator perks up Pikachu just like the one before and the one before that. "I know you'd like that. It's coming as soon as Marvelous Mattie gets out of his little hissy fit…"

"Uh, Dawn?"

Turning up from conversing with Pikachu, Dawn says, "Just a second, Brock. I was just telling Pikachu about our foolish little imp of a waiter."

"Yeah, about that…"

"You have something to say about him, too? I tell you, once I leave here, I'm not gonna give him a good tip, that's for sure. This meal might come to one hundred fifty dollars, but he'll only get about five. He doesn't deserve a single cent more with his snooty attitude this evening."

"Dawn, stop!" Seeing that it's worthless to stop her with everything that she's said at the moment, Brock palms his face with his left hand and points his younger friend in the direction just behind her.

"What? What is it?" she asks before finally deciding to turn around. Dawn had no choice in the matter, to be blunt, but she wishes that she did not have to look at a very insincere Matthew with a sinister smile plastered from one end of his face to the other. Upon seeing the face of the freckle-faced teen, it became apparent to her that the jig may very well be up. It causes Dawn to mouth something which might have been obscene in nature, but no one will ever truly know except her. "Uh, hello Matt. I—you know I was just kidding you buddy."

"Don't call me buddy, little girl, and might I say that you have a very odd way of kidding around. Now I could have the two of you thrown out of here on your rumps very easily for bringing a pokemon in here for a non-disability purpose, but I think that dish duty would be best for taking you off your high horse."

"After you, Matt," Brock unexpectedly chimes in. "You've been nothing but discourteous to Dawn and I the entire time we've been here, and I think it speaks badly upon this establishment that they would even consider employing you. The two of us are paying customers. We've overused our ketchup privileges, for sure, but we don't mind paying for that. Just…don't mind Dawn, we've had a pretty hard week and we wanted to…"

"Just save it before I have to alert management about this unfortunate turn of events. Your Pikachu," he explains while opening the tablecloth to see the mouse on the floor next to a bottle attempting to get a small amount from the bottom, "needs to go on ketchup detox and is causing more than just a shortage in condiments. There were people in the tables next to you complaining about a smell coming from over here and wouldn't you know that I knew just where to go to find my culprit?"

Looking down underneath the tablecloth one more time, she asks Pikachu to move over. He does so and Dawn gets treated to a mound full of scat. "Oh, Pikachu!" which causes Ash several tables over to do a double take.

"Pikachu?" Ash asks out of pure habit. Zoey decides to get his pokemon off of his mind for once by giving him a kiss directly on the lips.

Brock notices absolutely none of this and takes a look under the table and whistles at the pile made by the pokemon in less than half an hour of eating ketchup. "My goodness!"

While both Brock and Dawn spend time commenting on the mess that the pocket monster has just made on the floor, Matt grits his teeth and curses his fortune given the fact that, "I have floor duty this evening," but the two friends could barely hear him given the fact that he sneered while making this statement. "Do you two have any idea how difficult it is to clean this carpet? A couple of snot-nosed kids had their macaroni and cheese about a month ago and you can still see traces of yellow on the carpet." Bringing his head down, he laments, "Cleaning it gave me nightmares; this might require some sessions in therapy…and you two are responsible!"

"Look, if it makes you feel better, I'll pay for the carpet cleaner! Don't stress about it, we were just concerned about a friend and came here to see how he was doing on his date tonight. We didn't know it would turn out like this!"

"Why can't this little rat just stay in his pokeball, for Pete's sake?" Matt's frustration is no excuse in Pikachu's mind for being called a rat, which he considers an insult of the most degrading sort. He charges up electricity through his cheeks; a show of anger towards this Matthew character.

"I wouldn't call Pikachu a rat, man," Brock says in an almost pleading fashion. "That's just a warning, Matt."

"Well, your pal here has caused hundreds of dollars in damage." Reaching down he aims to pull Pikachu out from underneath the table, saying "Let's get your friend out of here and then we can break down how you plan to pay for all of this."

Dawn, seeing the look on the face of Ash's primary pokemon at that moment "Wait, don't do that, Matt. I'll pick him up!"

"You've done enough already!" he counters. "It's time for me to take a stand for once and it starts with getting rid of this rodent…" Matt can not continue his rant as he is suffering from electric shock due to Pikachu's thunder attack, which he is using as a means of defense. He screams and the calls from Brock and Dawn to let go of Pikachu fall on death's ear as the volts of electricity pulse through Matt's body until the mouse thinks that the very haughty waiter has had enough.

"Oh!" he exclaims as he collapses down to the carpet of Icicle in a blackened and charred heap. When Brock gets up from his seat and offers to help him up, he gets the comment from Matt to, "Just go," in his strained voice. "Just get your butts out of here before I call my manager, my lawyer or the police. I don't care that you're not paying for your meal. Just get out of here and take that disturbed little mouse out of my sight right now!"

Hearing the very impactful and near-disturbing tone of Matthew's voice, Brock and Dawn take a hint and gather up Pikachu, placing him in a bag meant for pets. The twosome catches a lot of attention for the scene, including the watchful eyes of Ash and Zoey, who try to figure out who is making their exit out of Icicle so quickly not caring whether or not they are drawing attention to themselves. Seeing the girl leaving the restaurant and holding the handbag, Ash notices that there is a head with ears sticking out inside the carry on. Knowing that carrying pets in this fashion is a new-old trend of sorts, he thinks nothing of it as he heads back into his seat along with Zoey to finish the rest of their meal.

"I just want you to know, that…this entire night has been great, Ash," Zoey says while he walks the younger girl to her home, where she will be staying for the weekend. "I doubt that calling it a date is enough. Even without the incident with that couple and the waiter getting shocked, this was quite an experience."

"The pleasure's all mine, Zoey," Ash responds. "I've been waiting for this for some time and it's all been well worth the wait."

As they walk and get closer to the Aiken household, Ash makes the obvious comment, "I'll be rooting you on at the contest house tomorrow, but you probably knew that already. It's funny. For the past several months, I've been rooting Dawn on and cheering for her in the stands and had you on my mind the entire time. This is when I wondered if you had any feelings for…anyone at that point. Now not only will I be cheering Dawn on, I'll be cheering you on too. Boy, I think my voice will strain if you go up against her in the finals, what do you think?"

"Ha! You're right!" Zoey laughs. "At that point, you'll have to leave it up to everyone else in the houses to cheer for you. You know, I'm glad to hear that, honestly. I wouldn't want us being together to have some sort of negative effect your other relationships with your friends. You'll cheer Dawn just as loudly as you cheer me. I like that."

"Thank you, Zoey. Really, you should know that I'll always be there for my friends. They come first and so do you."

Now is the time when Zoey thanks Ash. With each other's arms over one another, they finally make their way to the house. "We're here. This is where we say good night."

"That's until we see each other tomorrow," he says. Afterwards, he leans in for a conservative kiss on the cheek, much like a first kiss, though both will admit that their first contained more pent up emotion than this one right now. This kiss that the two just shared is the epitome of a good night kiss.

"Good night, Zoey. The deal is that I meet with your family and spend the day with them tomorrow, right?"

"Right. Now you take care and above all, try not to be nervous. Mom and dad will see right through it. Now if I know my family everyone is probably gathered in front of the TV to watch soccer, so you can go if you want. I know it's a ways away from the pokemon center."

"Okay, then. You have your copy of the eight by ten, right?"

"Yep, it's in the bag that you gave me with the locket. Good night, man!" And with that, Zoey makes her way back into the house using her key. As she predicted, no one was there at the door as they were all in the family room cheering on the local soccer team in their match against rivals, the Football Club of Solaceon.

While Zoey walks in the house to greet her relatives and talk about her date, Ash's mission is to not get caught outside too late at night. He hurries back to the hotel in near record time while still holding onto his copy of the photo that he and Zoey took at Icicle.

In just ten minutes of what would have been a thirty minute walk, Ash goes to his room to find both Brock and Dawn channel surfing while the two are in their pajamas.

"How are you guys?"

"All right," they answer. "How was the date?"

"Incredible. Here, take a look at this," Ash explains as he pulls out an eight by ten photo of her and Zoey smiling to the camera at Icicle while on their date.

"Man it sounds like you knocked it out of the park tonight," Brock comments, giving the young trainer a fist pound and declaring, "That's my man!"

"Did you two and Pikachu find something to do while I was out?"

"Oh, we…made great use of our time," Dawn answers, doing her best to not let the Delcatty out of the bag, or even the Pikachu for that matter.

"All right. You should be heading for bed soon, Dawn. You've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow at the contest."

"You're right. I shouldn't be long."

"Where's Pikachu?"

"He's in the bathroom," Brock nonchalantly answers.

"Okay then," he says, knowing that Pikachu will often relax in a shallow bath of warm water whenever they are at a center hotel. Going inside the bathroom, he sees his signature pokemon with a big smile on his face as if he were in a dream state.

Seeing his pokemon smile makes him smile, until he notices the bag next to the tub. 'Wait a minute. I didn't know Dawn had a bag like that!' Getting a closer look at it, Ash can see that it looks familiar…and can feel everything coming together for him as he takes the bag and heads back into the main room. "Brock? Dawn?"

"Yeah, Ash?" they sleepily ask while resting on the bed.

"Be honest," he says while holding up the bag, "did you spy on my date with Zoey at Icicle tonight?"

The two look at each other and know that they are beat. Ash has brought the evidence and there's not much defending either of them can do. They admit to their wrongdoings by saying "Yes," and then apologizing for butting in like there is no tomorrow.

"Don't worry about it," Ash assures the two of them. "I guess I should have thought that there was a chance this would happen. I'm not really mad. I'm just…"

Ash doesn't get the chance to finish his thoughts as he hears a noise coming from the bathroom. Checking on his friend, he sees that Pikachu is now inside a bath with water that is blood red.

Fearing the worst, he checks his pokemon up and down and sees no cuts or injuries of any sort. Turning to Brock and Dawn at the front of the doorway into the bathroom, he asks them, "How did this water get…" and in less time than it took to ask the question, Ash gets his answer as his Pikachu throws up right in his face. "Oh, man! How did this happen, you guys? What did you feed him?"

"Well," Brock begins in an attempt to find the right words, "he wanted ketchup, and we gave it to him. I think it was…five bottles in all."

Putting Pikachu down, Ash wipes his face off and says, "No wonder. Okay two things, you two. One; you don't need to spy. If you wanna see how I do in my dates, call Zoey and me. We'll see if we can't double date or go as friends. And two; limit Pikachu's ketchup count to two bottles. Anything beyond that…" Ash explains as he watches Pikachu throwing up in the bathtub, "and he won't be able to handle his sauce."

"Are we okay, Ash?"

"Dawn, we're fine, I just want to know that you won't pull a stunt like this again. Do you swear to Mew?"

Raising their right hands, both promise not to spy and the conversation ends with Ash hugging his best friends all at once.

All of this happens while Pikachu continues to bleed ketchup from the mouth and regret going on his latest binge.

A/N: The next chapter has the Snowpoint City Pokemon Contest and Ash being introduced to Zoey and a few members of her extended family.

Until then, this is Rave!