Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 79: A Champion's Promise

Ash winced in both pain and embarrassment. He didn't know it was possible for embarrassment to be physically painful, but it was, and he preferred Charizard's Blast Burn to it. At least he'd been expecting that pain. He definitely hadn't been expecting his mother to inflict so much. And with Serena's help.

"I don't need to do this, mom," Ash complained again, as the hairbrush his mother was attacking him with ripped painfully through the knots in his air. "It's just getting medals and a trophy. I'm not doing one of those interviews again."

"No son of mine is going on a stage with the Champion of the Kalos region and the Kalos Queen, looking like he hasn't combed his hair since leaving Pallet Town," Delia growled, again attacking his head with the brush.

Ash didn't say anything to that. He may or may not have been very good with his hair care during his travels. It hadn't really come up, though. He usually had his hat on to cover it, so maybe it wasn't noticeable. It wasn't like his friends had been bugged by it. They hadn't thought of it till now, either. He glanced nervously towards Serena and noticed she was struggling not to laugh. Of course, now she was thinking of it, which he wasn't too happy about.

It was the next day after the final match of the Kalos League. After passing out at the Pokemon Centre, Ash had slept for the entire rest of the day and through the night. He'd woken up in the morning to the sight of Serena, Bonnie, Clemont and his mother all watching him in concern. They'd all informed him that Diantha had delayed the victory ceremony so that he could rest and that it would take place in the afternoon.

Once Ash had acknowledged this, though, his mother had gotten into action very quickly, making him get out of bed immediately and getting to work on making him look "presentable". Ash didn't really need to argue at first. He didn't need to wear a suit or anything, and Delia had just wanted to clean his regular clothes. However, when she'd started on his hair, that's where things started to get quite uncomfortable.

Luckily, though, she was finally finishing up, and Ash had to admit it looked decent enough. He was quick to grab his hat and slip it on, though, because, as he had said many times before, "it didn't feel right to not have it on". Once he was ready, he looked unhappily at his mom. "Is everything fine, now?"

"I guess so," Delia said with a smirk. "Now we should get going. We don't want to be late."

When they left the room, Clemont and Bonnie were waiting outside, as they had left awkwardly when Ash's grooming had begun. Bonnie was looking pretty excited about what was coming up. She was shaking with excitement and was whipping down the path towards the stadium within seconds, leaving everyone behind. Ash, Serena and Delia kept their pace slow, though, in order to allow for the always trailing Clemont to keep up.

"I can't believe this day has finally come," Clemont gasped out. "When I first met you, you were getting thrown out of my gym by Clembot. It's amazing that Bonnie and I were saving a future Kalos League winner that day."

"Yeah," Ash said, thinking back to that day. It had been the day he'd met Greninja, as a Froakie. Maybe if he'd never been thrown out of the gym like that, the two would never have met. It was all meant to be.

"That was the same day as the Garchomp incident, right?" Serena asked.

Ash nodded, although it was with a nervous glance at his mom, who had been pretty upset when she'd heard about Ash having jumped off of the tower, although she'd been unable to come up with an argument against him trying to save Pikachu. "I guess that day wasn't just important for me meeting Greninja," he finally said.

Serena smiled and took his hand in hers. "I thought it was a movie when I saw what was happening on the news. And then when I saw you, I knew I had to start my journey."