Friendly Interactions...

Chapter 11 - Friendly Interactions...

Solid and his pokémon returned to his suite, Pikachu hiding in his backpack while Lucario and Gardevoir moved by his side. Brock, Gary and Richie glanced at the door when it opened and greeted Solid as he came back in, which he returned with his own greeting. Solid went to his room, dropped off his backpack gently, as to not hurt Pikachu inside it, and told Lucario and Gardevoir that they could relax and do as they pleased without bothering the rest. The two decided to just stay in the master bedroom for the time being. Solid left the room and closed the door, signaling Pikachu that it was okay to get out of the backpack, which he used to quickly jump out with his bottle of ketchup.

Solid joined the three sitting on the couches and decided to watch the movie with them. It was an action movie, about a pokémon trainer who was trying to rescue the love of his life from an evil sorcerer and his bewitched pokémon. As they watched the movie, the others joined them in watching it, while also making some small talk here and there. Cilan and Iris didn't show up for quite a while, which Gary noticed. He turned to the group at large.

"Who wants to make a bet as to what they're doing in there?"

"Shut up Gary!" yelled the girls together. The guys all laughed.

"Okay, jeez, learn to have some fun why don't you."

Before anything else happened, Brock got up from his seat, saying he's going to make some lunch since it was past noon already. The rest continued watching the movie and ten minutes later, the movie ended and Brock called out to them.

"Food's ready!"

The door to Cilan's and Iris's room opened at Brock's yell and everyone turned to look at them. The couple blushed madly at the attention and they just realized that they've been away from the group for a while.

"So, did ya kids have fun?" smirked Gary. Serena and May both elbowed him in the stomach. Gary grunted in pain at the double whammy and curled up into a fetal position on the couch.

"We did Oak, compared to what you're going through right now you little kid!" replied Iris, her face getting redder by the second. Cilan's face flushed crimson and then ushered her towards the dinner table. The group followed the couple, leaving Gary to lick his wounds.

"Wow, Brock this looks delicious!" complimented Solid as he looked at the prepared food. There was a big bowl of soup, a large plate of chicken wings, some salad and bread.

"Thanks. It's nothing special though." Brock said modestly.

"Trust me, I haven't had a good meal in a long time and I can tell this is going to be amazing."

"What do you mean that you haven't had a good meal for a long time Solid?" Solid glanced at the brunette with the bandanna. Her cheeks turned pink as he caught her eye and he smiled a bit.

"Well, it's because I've been away from home for a long time. I've been busy taking care of some things and been traveling for a few years now. I learned how to cook for myself a little but nothing grand. Just simple things you know? So this to me is like a feast."

"Well, you're going to enjoy Brock's cooking. He's the best!" praised Dawn.

"You mean ONE of the best! Cilan's very good too!" said Iris. Cilan blushed at her compliment.

"Yes I meant him too. Sorry," muttered Dawn.

"Well let's dig in everyone!" encouraged the green haired connoisseur.

They all sat down around the table to eat. Solid took some food for his pokémon to share and re-joined the group at the table shortly after. They left the head of the table for him, but he tried to have Brock sit there since he did the cooking but the spiky haired man wouldn't listen. They all ate silently, the food being too good to even warrant any other noises besides metal utensils hitting their plates or the sound of chewing. Once everyone had second helpings, they were soon full and just relaxed sitting. After a moment of silence, Max asked Solid a question.

"Hey Solid, you said you were traveling around for a while right?"

"Yea I did. What's up Max?"

"Did you meet a lot of people or were you mostly away from others?"

"MAX! That's none of your business!" yelled May.

"It's okay May. A little of both. Why do you ask?"

"Well…since you said you were traveling for a while, I wanted to know if you met someone. A friend of ours that we haven't seen for a while now…"

Solid frowned. He knew where this was going. It tore at him but knew now was not the right time.

"What was his name?"

"Ash…" Four girls answered him besides Max who were all staring at their empty plates.

"Ash? As in Ash Ketchum?" He hated playing this game. He wanted to tell them so bad.

"Yea, that's him!" screamed Serena in joy.

"Have you met him?" asked Misty. Her eyes were filled with hope as she stared at him, which he noticed. It pained him that he had to continue this charade. He decided he'll give them a little bit of information.

"Yes I have."

"Really?! When?"

"Was he okay?"

"Did he talk about us?"

"What was he doing?"

The four girls started asking questions nonstop.

"Alright girls, relax!" shouted Brock. They stopped talking, both mad at Brock for quieting them and embarrassed as they just went off like that. Solid chuckled before Gary cut him off.

"Hold on there a second Solid. None of us have been able to find our friend Ash. Nobody has heard or seen from him in ages. We've tried everything and spoken with everyone. Yet you're saying that you have. How? When? And why you?"

Gary suddenly grew suspicious of Solid and he wanted to know why of all people, this random person they just met today had met their friend who had been gone for three years. Everyone looked at Gary for a second before facing Solid, with questioning looks on the faces. Ash sweat dropped but he decided to tell them just a little bit of the truth and his adventures.

"I'll tell you. It was a coincidence that I ran into him though. I met him a while ago when I was making my way through Meteor Falls in Hoenn traveling around the area for some pokémon. I reached his camp ground and he was busy training so he didn't notice me at first but once I got closer and he saw I wasn't a threat, we introduced our selves and saw we were both heading the same way and decided to team up for a bit. We talked a bit about what we were doing and why. I found out that we were both training to become stronger. I had promised my family that I would return a champion and he had similar goals as well but was also preparing for something."

"He was in Hoenn? And he didn't visit?" asked May, an obvious hurt look on her face. Solid felt so bad.

Idiot! Why the hell did you say a specific location?

"Well May, let me tell you something. We talked a bit and found out some stuff about each other. I asked him if he was on his own and he said he was but he also told me that he missed his friends dearly. He said he had a group picture of his friends that he looked at every night before he slept. I asked him why he didn't go back and visited his friends. He said he wanted to, very much, that he thought about them and missed them every day. But he said he was on a mission, that he couldn't leave it now, because if he did, then everything he did would be for nothing. I don't know what he meant by that. He did say that one day soon he will see them again once he's ready and completely reaches his goal. After a couple days of traveling together, we went our separate ways. This was about five months ago and that was the last I've heard or seen of him."

Solid looked at the group in front of him, but noticed that everyone was sad, and that the girls, even iris, had tears in their eyes.

"He said all that?" whispered Dawn.

"He misses us? And thinks about us every day?" Misty started crying.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything," began Solid but was interrupted by Serena.

"No, you did the right thing Solid. We needed to know. Thank you." Solid looked around at the group and they nodded.

"But what did he mean that he was on a mission?" asked Max.

"I can't tell you because I don't know," sighed Solid. He felt like an asshole for lying to them.

"I guess we'll find out some day. Alright guys, why don't you go relax, get some fresh air at the balcony or go on a walk or something. Cilan, can you help with the dishes please?"

"Of course! Not a problem." Cilan rose with Brock as they set to work cleaning up the table and dishes.

The girls went to the balcony and pondered about what they heard in silence. Solid said he's going to go train a bit with Lucario and Gardevoir. Richie said he was going to go train as well and headed out a little while after Solid. Gary and Max went back to the living room and watched TV for the remainder of the day. Richie came back after a few hours to find Brock, Cilan, Max and Gary playing a board game they found in one of the closets. The girls soon went to their room, no doubt to talk in a more private area.

"Hey, Monopoly! I want to play."

"No can do Richie Rich. I'm almost done draining these three's bank accounts," laughed Gary.

"You have no idea Richie. You don't know how lucky this guy is!" cried Max.

Richie looked closer at the game and saw several hotels all over the board spaces.

"Are those all yours Gary?"

"Yup!"

"Yea, I'll pass."

"It's a very depressing flavor. He's always getting perfect dice roles," whined Cilan.

"Yea, it's a mystery. So how was training Richie?" asked Brock.

"Not bad. Everyone's improved greatly. I think we're ready for the tournament." Richie's face beamed with confidence. The guys nodded in agreement. "Has Solid come back yet?"

"No he hasn't," answered Gary without looking up. "He's probably still training."

"Damn, still? Well that's good. I don't want easy opponents," commented Richie as he went to wash up and change his clothes.

It took about another hour for Gary to win the board game, causing Max to yell that he cheated at the end. Brock attempted to calm down the young kid while Gary laughed, not helping the situation at all. Richie and Cilan merely shook their heads at the pair's antics.

When the girls entered the room, they started talking more openly about what Solid had told them over breakfast.

"Do you really think Solid met Ash?" asked Serena, hope filling her.

"I don't think he would lie about something like that," replied Dawn.

"But how can you be so sure Dawn? Like Gary said, you four have done everything humanely possible to try and find him and you came up with nothing. What makes Solid so special that he just ran into him?" Iris's comments made them think for a couple moments.

"Well, it might've been just coincidence. We'll never know. I can tell that Solid was hiding some things, but not bad. Maybe he made a promise to not say more and I wouldn't be surprised." Misty's opinion made sense and the girls nodded.

"Maybe. But if he's hiding something from us about Ash and we find out about it, he'll be in a world of pain before you can 'Pokémon Master'." May punched her fist into her other hand. They giggled for a moment before Dawn's question made them go silent again.

"Do you guys really believe that Ash thinks about us and misses us every day?"

"I'm sure he is Dawn. If anybody is like that, it would be him," said Serena softly.

The girls sighed and murmured that they agreed when they heard some shouts suddenly. The girls came out of the room and demanded to know why there was yelling and soon smacked each of the guys upside the head for causing a commotion. Cilan, Brock and Richie complained as to why they got hit when they did nothing. The girls answered that from now on if one guy messed up, then they all would get hit since they were tired of their shenanigans.

"I'd love to see you five try to hit Solid. Four of you would just faint getting close to him!" cackled Gary.

Brock, Max, Cilan and Richie face palmed as they all thought the same thing; Gary was a dead man, and so were they because of his disregard for his friends. The four girls had red circles on their faces while Iris merely had an angry expression on her face.

"You're dead Oak!" said the five together, as Misty raised her mallet.

"Why's Oak dead?" asked Solid.

Nobody had noticed he had walked in but everyone turned towards him. He was holding his sweaty black shirt in his hand with a towel around his neck. Lucario and Gardevoir were behind him. All of the girls' eyes widened and they blushed madly at the sight of Solid, half naked and sweaty, his toned muscles showing off. Without warning, four of the girls fainted right there, with only Iris still standing, yet she was in shock still. Cilan hurriedly got up and blocked iris's view. He shot Solid an annoyed look.

"Do you mind?"

"Oh, sorry, I'll go put on something."

Solid went to his room to take a quick shower and change, his pokémon following him with grins plastered on their faces.

"Wow, Gary you're the luckiest son of a bitch I've ever met," Richie said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"These girls were about to kill you, then us," answered Brock, as he looked over the girls, making sure none of them hit their head and that none of them were bleeding from anywhere.

"Yea, but then Solid came in and that caused them to faint. Thank Arceus I'm still alive!" shouted Max, while looking up, his hands reaching for the ceiling.

"Yes, you're quite lucky Gary. That was quite an entertaining flavor, even though it left a bitter taste in my mouth at the end," finished Cilan.

"Ah, you're just upset that Iris froze like a statue after seeing his muscles!" laughed Gary.

Cilan shot him a very angry look, one that he rarely gave and it made Gary shut up immediately.

"She was merely giving admiration for someone who seems to take care of himself. Nothing wrong with that!" spat Cilan. He then turned to Iris and waved his hand in front of her dazed face. She snapped out of her trance and looked up into Cilan's face with a guilty expression on hers.

"Sorry Cilan, I just wasn't expecting something like that. You know I love only you. I was merely blindsided, that's all. You understand right?" pleaded Iris as she hugged him, still looking into his eyes.

"Of course my little monkey. I can never stay mad at you!"

"Ah, he has a pet name for her!" amused Gary, starting to laugh while getting angry looks from the couple.

Suddenly a mallet came up from behind the couch Gary was sitting on and then crashed down onto Gary's head, sending the researcher flying towards the ground. Misty got up, her mallet in her hand. Soon, the other girls got up; all of their faces still a little red.

"Don't think you're out of the woods yet Oak," breathed Misty heavily.

"I take that back. You're not the luckiest guy in the world. More like the saddest," corrected Richie. They all laughed over Gary's expense, as he slowly got back onto the couch, shaking his head.

"Well I was right wasn't I?"

The four girls gasped as they realized he was right. They glanced at each other and then just laughed.

"Wow, Misty didn't mallet you Gary," awed Max.

The rest of them joined in laughing. Solid stepped back into the living room, a little while later, fully dressed now with sweats and another black shirt.

"Sorry about that guys. I'll try to remember to not do that again."

"Don't worry about it," answered Dawn, her face going red again.

"So what took you so long?" asked Richie.

"I was perfecting some moves with my pokémon."

"Oh cool. What kinds of moves? And what pokémon?" Max was practically jumping up and down in anticipation. He loved talking about anything pokémon related.

"Sorry buddy, but you'll have to wait and see," smiled Solid as Max quieted down, a little sad from not being told. "Alright guys, I'm going to go to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

Solid bade them a good night and went to his room. Little by little, the rest of them went to their rooms as well, as Brock and Gary opened their couch bed up. Even though it wasn't too late, everyone had gone to sleep by about 10pm. Every single person in that suite had thoughts swim around in their head before slowly drifting off to sleep.