Ashley Ketchum was now traveling alone, on her way home to Pallet Town after her defeat in the Johto League Silver Conference. She had conflicted feelings at the moment, she was slightly depressed about the fact that she wouldn't be traveling with her two best friends, Misty and Brock, anymore. It hurt her to think that she wouldn't see the two for a while, but she was also happy and determined to start a new journey, and meet new people. She just… had no idea where to go next.

Suddenly, houses came into view as she reached the top of the hill she had been climbing, and she let out a scream of joy.

"Pikachu! Look, we're home!" She almost squealed with joy at seeing the place she had grown up in.

"Pika!" her faithful companion squeaked excitedly , and with that, the 14 year old (A/N im not sure if that's her age but it is in my story :D) sprinted down the hill, her waist long, spiky black hair flying behind her, and a little yellow mouse holding desperately onto her shoulder.

She ran all they way until she reached her home, and knocked on the door, wanting to surprise her mom. After a couple seconds, the door opened to reveal her mother.

Ashley didn't even have time to think before she was enveloped in a bone crushing hug, with her mother crying into her shoulder.

"Oh Ashley! You're finally home! I've missed you so much darling!"

Ashley smiled and hugged her mom just as tight "I missed you too mom, its great to be home!"

"Oh Ash, you must be so tired, lets get you to bed, its getting dark anyway!" she let her mother drag her to her room, smiling slightly as she laid down to sleep. It really was great to be home.

The next morning she got up and dressed in her normal black tank top with a pokeball in the middle, red, short sleeve jacket, and jean shorts. Along with her hat of course! As she walked down the stairs, she also slipped on her necklace that she had worn since Gary had given her the other half of that pokeball, she had put it onto a chain and wore it ever since.

Ashley sat down at the table just as her mom put breakfast on the table and started to eat, scratching pikachu behind his ears.

"Oh, Ashley, sweetie, I forgot to mention, Gary got into town a few days ago-" Ashley's eyes instantly lit up.

"What? Gary's here too? Bye mom I'll be back soon!" and with that she sprinted out the door, leaving her breakfast, pikachu, and her mom behind, running to Prof. Oak's lab. She opened the door to see Tracy and Prof. Oak.

"Hey guys! Good to see ya, where's Gary?" Prof. Oak chuckled at her eagerness

"He actually just left, to go on a new journey"

"What? He left already? Where to?"

"We're not entirely sure, he just left saying that he needed to keep moving. He probably wants to start fresh, that's why he left all of his pokemon here, well except for Blastoise"

She ran out the door to go find him, "I swear! The nerve of that boy! Leaving without even waiting for me to say goodbye!"

She ran to the top of the hill and saw his spiky brunette hair, "Gary! Hey, Gare Bear! Wait up you big idiot!" he stopped and turned as she ran up and tackled him in a hug. He just chuckled and hugged her back.

"Hey there Ashy what's up? Come to say goodbye?" he asked as he pulled back with a small smirk on his face.

"Of course! You can't say you didn't expect me to say goodbye! Anyway where are you even heading?"

"You know, I'm not even sure, but I gotta keep moving. I wanna learn all about new kinds of pokemon"

"Well… I guess I cant stop you, but here," she lifted up her necklace and broke it in half, giving one piece to Gary and stringing the other back onto the chain. He took it and smiled at her.

"Thanks Ashy!" he pulled her into another hug "I think I might miss you most of all you know" he said matter of factly and she blushed slightly, hiding her face in his shoulder.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Gare Bear" he pulled away and scowled playfully at the nickname before he let out a gasp, looking into the sky. She followed his gaze and gasped as well. "It's Ho-oh!"

"I wonder where it's headed…" Gary said in awe. And she came to a couple realizations at that one moment.

"It's headed to Hoenn… I think that's where I want to go now. But, Gary, will you go with me? Will you travel to Hoenn with me, please?" she looked at him, silently praying that he would say yes and travel with her. He then turned away from the legendary pokemon and smiled widely at her.

"Sure Ash! I think that'll be great! We should really go and stay another day in Pallet to get ready for the trip though, so let's head back" She smiled so wide that her cheeks hurt but she didn't care.

Ashley tackled Gary to the ground in a hug and he laughed loudly as she rambled "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Oh, we'll have so much fun!" they were still laying on the ground and Gary decided he needed to get her off. He smirked a little and started to tickle the girl's sides, laughing as she squealed at tried to get away.

Ash got up and started to run down the hill to the town with Gary sprinting after her.

The two ran to Prof. Oak's lab first, because Ashley wanted to give all her pokemon besides pikachu to him and start fresh just as Gary had done.

"Professor Oak! I'm back, and guess who I brought!" Ashley ran through the doors with Gary walking behind her.

"Oh, hello Gary! I see Ashley talked you into staying longer?" he questioned with a slight smile.

"Well I'm the one that decided we should head back, but we're leaving tomorrow. I've decided to start traveling with Ash instead of alone,"

"Well that's wonderful! Now where will you be traveling?" this is where Ashley decided to step in.

"Well, we decided that we want to go to the Hoenn Region. I also want to leave all my pokemon except for pikachu with you, so I can start fresh, just like when I left Pallet town at the beginning of my journey," she then looked at Gary "I was thinking that we should go to Littleroot Town first and meet Prof. Birch if that's okay with you"

"Yeah, that's fine, I could probably learn a thing or two from him anyway! He is famous for his pokemon feildwork, so that's a great idea!"

Just then Mrs. Ketchum burst through the door holding a couple things in her hands and pikachu on her shoulder.

"Ashy! I got you some new clothes and a new backpack! I figured that you would want to go to Hoenn, and that you would drag Gary with you," she giggled cheerfully at her daughter " so I took the liberty to buy you both a ticket to the ferry leaving to the Hoenn region from Seaform Island!"

"Wow, thanks mom! I love you so much!" she exclaimed as she hugged her mother tightly.

"Yeah, thanks so much Mrs. Ketchum!"

"Well anyway Ashley, don't forget to brush your teeth and change your undergarments!" her mother said and Ashley scowled

"Mother!" she screeched, an embarrassed flush appearing on her cheeks as Gary snickered.

"Sorry sweetie!" Prof. Oak walked up at that moment holding two pokedex's handing one to Gary and the other to Ashley.

"I decided to go ahead and update your pokedex's with information on pokemon in the Hoenn region for you two," he said smiling.

"Wow thanks!"

"Yeah, thank you Grandpa!"

"You're welcome, kids. Now, you should go and pack for the journey ahead of you, Ashley. Gary has already packed but you haven't"

"Sure thing Professor!" she then ran out the door, grabbing pikachu from her mom on her way out.

The next morning

Ashley woke up and pulled on her new outfit. It was an emerald green tank top with a black vest that she left unbuttoned, some dark jean shorts, and a new hat which was white and black with a green outline of the top half of a pokeball. All in all she was very happy with her mothers skill at picking her outfits.

She pulled on her new black and white sneakers, and walked out the door remembering to grab her backpack that followed her new color scheme of black, white and green. She ran to Oak's house, pulling on her half pokeball necklace as she went.

Gary walked out as she was about to knock on the door and smirked at her as usual "Hey there Ashy, you ready to go or what?"

"Aw, c'mon Gare Bear, you know I'm always ready for a new adventure!"

"Yeah, I'm just teasing-"

"You're always teasing"

"Anyway, lets go say bye to everyone,"

"Sure, lets go! Ooooh, I can't wait to see all those Hoenn pokemon!" she enthusiastically ran to the lab where everyone was waiting to say goodbye.

Mrs. Ketchum quickly spotted them coming and alerted everyone to start cheering, she then wrapped her daughter in a hug. "Oh, Ash, I'm going to miss you so much!"

"I'll miss you too mom," she whispered to her mother, not daring to let her voice get any louder in case the tears started. She never liked to leave her mom for so long, but she loved traveling and pokemon too much to let the opportunities pass her by.

"Pika! Pikachu!" her faithful companion squeaked

"You too Pikachu! You know I'll miss you!" her mother giggled quietly and pet the electric mouse

"Pikaa!"

Ashely looked over to see Gary talking to Prof. Oak and Tracey and walked over. She looked at Tracey very seriously.

"Take good care of my pokemon okay? Bayleaf will probably be very sad for a little while, so please be good to her. Make sure you aren't spoiling any of them either okay?" She needed to get her point across that the pokemon were now to be one of his main priorities.

"Don't you worry, Ashley, I'll take great care of them. Yours too Gary," he said seriously and nodded to Gary.

"Thank you," she hugged him and walked over to Gary. "We should probably get going now, so we get to the ferry by nightfall"

"Yeah, good idea, bye grandpa!"

"Goodbye Professor!"

"Goodbye kids, I hope to see you soon!"

Before they walked off Ashley heard a sound that made her skin crawl.

Gary's Cheerleaders

"Gary, Gary, He's our man! He'll go places no one can!" Ashley gave Gary a scathing look and he just smirked and shrugged. She turned to look at the girls who were cheering.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" she then turned on her heel, leaving behind the shocked girls and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Gary just kept a smirk on his face.

A/N Hope you liked it! And yes this will be Palletshipping if anyone was wondering. I'm not sure when they'll get together but they will only be really good friends at first.