Roadtrip- An Amourshipping Story (Slow Updates)

Chapter 4: Shedding some Skin

 "So you battled Ash in the Sinnoh League?" Chloe asked as she followed the boy through the forest. The only response she got from him was a groan. She looked up into the sky and watched the stars shine through the dark night. She wished she could go find her friends again, but she was scared. Not because of the dark, nor the pokemon in the forests, but scared of being alone. Chloe had no choice but to follow the boy. "You're not much of a talker are you?" Chloe asked, still no response from the boy. They continued to walk through the forest looking for a river, but had no luck. Without a word, Paul then started making his way back to his campsite, leaving Chloe in the dust. "Hey! Wait up!"

"Why do you continue to follow me?" Paul questioned, making Chloe stop in her tracks. "Shouldn't you go back to your boyfriend or something?" Chloe blushed a tint red, but shook it off as she watched Paul walk away.

"Hey, wa..."

"STOP FOLLOWING ME OK!" Paul shouted at her. Chloe stopped as she watched Paul shivering in fear. Paul then stopped and recollected himself, looking away from the girl in front of her. "Sorry." Chloe started walking towards the boy as he stood there looking at his feet, devastated at his actions. As she reached the boy, she saw tiny sweat droplets, dripping down his forehead. She smiled, looking at the boy. She gave him a soft hug, seeing that the boy has some feelings still left inside of him.

The two kids continued to walk through the dense forest, looking for Chloe's friends. She was grateful for the fact that Paul decided to open up to her, but confused why Ash never really talked about Paul. From the looks of it, Paul looked like Ash's biggest rival, yet nothing about him was talked about. From the other side, Paul sounded like Ash was some sort of wall that he has to climb so he can complete his dream. Chloe walked in silent as she followed the Sinnoh boy.

"You ok?" She looked up to see Paul looking at her.

She sighed and asked, "So do you know where your camp is?" Paul pointed to a trail of smoke in the sky. He then started to walk towards the smoke. It didn't take long before they found their way back to his campsite. He then sat down near the campfire and sighed.

"You should really be going back to your friends," Paul said to Chloe who was sitting next to the boy. "They could be looking for you."

"Yah, but I don't know where it is," Chloe said in a sad voice. Paul then closed his eyes, thinking of how to help her out. After a minute, he opened his eyes and grabbed a pokeball from his bag. He then threw it up into the air and a blue light came flowing out of the pokeball. Out came a big, dark blue bird, the size of a small car. With it's mighty wings, it blew dust up into the air as the bird flapped its wings.

"KROW!" it yelled out as the bird spread his wings. Chloe, terrified, took a few steps back and tumbled to the ground. Paul put his hand out to help the girl up back on her feet and turned to the bird.

"Honchkrow," Paul said as he petted the bird on one of his wings. "Please take this girl back to a trainer named Ash." The bird recognized the name and nodded to his trainer's command. Paul turned to Chloe and let out a small smile. "I guess we part ways from here."

"I guess so," Chloe said as she made her way to the bird. Paul helped her up to get in Honchkrow's back. "Thank you for the help." And with that, the bird flapped his wings and lifted them up into the air, soaring over the sea of trees. Paul watched his pokemon disappear into the distance. He sighed as he lost sight of the bird and next to the fire pit, still simmering with smoke.

"I guess some people aren't that bad," Paul said to himself as he thought of the girl. As images of the girl flowed into his head, a tint of pink rose from his cheeks. A couple minutes later, the bird flapped his mighty wings and landed behind his trainer, who was sleeping under the starry night sky. The pokemon then perched under a tree, and slept through the dark night.

"Do you really know where we're going?" Paul opened his eyes and heard voices coming towards the camp. He motioned his Honchkrow to come near him and prepared for an attack. He saw wrestling in the bushes and pointed for the pokemon to fire a Dark Pule. Once the beam hit the bush, four girls came running out, tumbling in front of the pokemon. Paul rolled his eyes and sighed as he walked towards the girls. He noticed a blue haired girl. He recognized her, but couldn't figure who she was.

"Who the heck fired that?" The brown brunette asked, frustrated about the recent action. She looked up to see Paul standing in front of her. "Did you do that?"

"Yah," Paul said as he returned his pokemon to his respective ball.

"Ok, let me at him!" The girl yelled, getting held back from one of her friends.

"Calm down May," Her friend said to her as she held May's arm. She then looked at the boy and gasped. "Paul?"

"Who are you?" Paul asked in a cold voice.

"It's me, Dawn," the blue hair girl said.

"Don't remember."

"Oh, I'll make you remember then!" the girl shouted as she tried to punch Paul in the head, but stopped by May and Serena. Bonnie laughed at her friends and asked, "So your name is Paul?"

"Who are you?"

Chloe returned to a sleepy camp as Honchkrow landed softly onto an open field. She got off the bird and thanked him for the ride. The bird smiled and lifted off once again, leaving the girl behind. She then made her way to a lit up tent, hearing conversations from the tent. Chloe tiptoed past the tent so they wouldn't hear her walking by, but heard her name. Curiosity taking control, she opened the tent door and smiled at the boys.
"Hey guys," Chloe said as she walked into the tent. Seconds later, Goh gave her a hug, something that caught her off guard.

"Where were you?" Goh questioned her, though still hugging the girl. "I was so scared that you were hurt." Chloe chuckled and returned the hug, telling Goh that she was fine.

"Man, can you guys get another tent?" The two huggers turned to see Gary smirking in the corner of the tent. Chloe looked around to find Ash, but he wasn't there.

"Hey, you guys know where Ash is?" Chloe asked, wondering where he went?

"Yah about that..." Goh rubbed the back of his neck looking sad. "He left."

"WHAT?!?!?!"

"I'm joking," Goh laughed. Seconds later, he recollected himself and smiled. "He just went to get more firewood with Pikachu. They should be back in a little bit." And just like that, they heard Ash's voice outside the tent. They opened the door to see Ash standing in front of a large pile of sticks, next to him was his partner holding his fair share of tiny twigs.

"Hey Chole, I see your back from your small adventure," Ash said with a smile. "You ok? You've been gone for a bit."

"I'm fine," Chloe responded to him. She then remembered about Paul and about their rivalry and wondered about his past adventures. "Hey Ash, what did you do before you met us?"

Ash had a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"You said that you challenged a lot of gyms and took part in some leagues. Can you tell us some of those stories?" Ash thought for a bit and then chuckled as he looked at his friends.

"Sure," Ash said with a smile. "Where should I start? Ummm... My journey began a while ago when I was watching a league finals on my T.V."