Here we go… again… sigh.

Welcome fanficers to a new story that I've been working on for a while. Lately I've been reading some fanfiction stories and I've gotten inspired to write again. So hopefully this isn't some one time motivation and I can actually stick with writing. This is going to be a different style story and the chapters will probably be shorter. I think this story will be a warm up before I try writing a big main story.

As for my other two stories I haven't finished. I don't know if I will finish them… at least not right now. My writing is most definitely rusty, so I need to… freshen up before I finish those stories.

With that out of the way, let's do this.

It was a rather peaceful morning in Pallet Town. The pidgeys were flying around in the fresh air, some of them in trees singing a soft tune. Groups of butterfrees drifted in the air, enjoying the early morning sunrise. Nidorans edged near the forest around Pallet Town, getting ready to start the day. It was another peaceful morning… keyword, was.

"Ash Ketchum are you not up yet?" A young and very attractive mother opened the door to hear the snoring of a seven year old child. She asked the question in slight disbelief, but she wasn't entirely shocked that the child, her own son, slept in.

"Waaaaa! Mom, why didn't you wake up!" The boy awoke in a panic causing him to fall from his bed, which was suspended quite a bit high in the room. His mother, Delia, shook her head in amusement, a small smile gracing her lips.

"You better hurry or you might miss Professor Oak's trip." Delia informed, slightly urging him as Ash tried to change out of his pajamas to regular clothes quickly, unfortunately, his rushing was just causing him to take more time. After a few minutes of struggling, he finally got his clothes on and rushed out of his room.

"Bye mom!" He yelled as he ran down the stairs, causing him to fall down the stairs instead. Delia slightly winced hearing the tumble as she was still in Ash's room, but she still found humor hearing he being his clumsy self, giggling at her son. She knew that boy in the future would be a handful for anyone who bothered to be friends with him.

Oh how right she was.

Ash Ketchum ran through Pallet Town as quickly as possible, desperate to reach Professor Oak's lab in time, which unfortunately was on the opposite side of Pallet Town from his house. The clothes he struggled with earlier was pretty basic. A plain red shirt with blue shorts, the first clothes he picked up. Not the best match, but his seven year old self, like most seven year olds, didn't care.

He made it in time, barely, seeing Professor Oak outside still at the lab looking prepared to go with a bunch of other kids his age. Gasping for air from his cross-town run, he bent over trying to regain as much air as possible, Professor Oak hearing the gasping turned his head toward the source and saw the familiar kid with jet black, messy hair. He had a similar reaction to Delia, shaking his head in amusement, knowing the kids antics.

"Good that you made it Ash. We were just about to leave for the trip." The professor informed him, catching the attention of the kids, all turning their heads towards Ash. He, finally regaining enough air in his lungs, looked up at all the kids looking at him. He immediately recognize a familiar face who had spiky brown hair, his best friend Gary Oak, grandson of Professor Oak. He also recognized a couple other friends from the rest of the group, but one person wasn't familiar to him.

He couldn't get the best look of her since she was in the back and behind Professor Oak, but he did caught note of white-ish blond hair. He didn't get a chance to try to get another look at her as Gary stepped up to him, blocking his view from her.

"Ashy boy you almost missed the trip. Good thing ya made it. Let's see some Pokemon." Gary said, slinging his arm around Ash and started to walk, pulling Ash along. He wanted to punch Gary for saying his nickname, which he hated, but he let it slide. Excitement overcoming his slight anger towards his best friend.

"Yeah! I'm so excited!" Ash exclaimed, flashing a big smile, something in which the blonde took note at.

"Wow look at those Pokemon!" Gary exclaimed, pointing at a pack of Pokemon on a grassy field. The Pokemon were white in color besides the flames that covered part of the body.

"Gary those are rapidashes. Rapidashes can reach outstanding speeds, hence the name rapi-dash." Professor Oak briefly explained to the kids, stressing out the second syllable in rapidash's name. All the kids looked up in amazement at the rapidashes, who were curiously staring back at the group who were walking by. Well almost all the kids.

"Woah, look over there!" Ash exclaimed, mimicking Gary and pointing at another pack of Pokemon. There were a bunch of them he noticed, egg shaped Pokemon huddling around a tree, some of them being cracked. While their were fifty or so eggs, he took notice that they seem to pack up in groups of six each.

"Those are exeggcutes. They may look like eggs, but these guys aren't fragile and are ready to swarm and fight an enemy." Professor Oak once again explained, moving the students along as they look at the Pokemon with animated eyes.

As they were walking along the path, with most of the kids in front, and some right behind Professor Oak, one lagged behind. Something in which Ash noticed. While he joked and talked with Gary about Pokemon, he looked behind and saw the girl from earlier, sluggishly walking down the pathway, her head pointing down to the ground.

Ash slowly started to slip behind Gary and eventually made his way beside the girl with blonde hair. Professor Oak looked at Ash as he had stopped talking to Gary to see him besides the girl. He raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything and turned his head back around and started to explain another Pokemon that one of the kids pointed out.

"Hey!" Ash flashed a bright smile, trying to be friendly. What he didn't noticed was the girl didn't realize he was there.

"Eeeep!" She slightly jumped and screeched, gaining the attention of a couple of kids and Professor Oak. The kids who turned their way didn't pay any more attention than a simple glance, but Professor Oak kept an eye on them, which was rather difficult since Ash and the girl was behind him and he had to watch a bunch of other kids. One of the kids at one point almost fell off a small bridge.

"Uh I'm sorry!" Ash exclaimed nervously, waving his hands in front in a way showing that he meant no hard. He didn't mean to scare her. She looked his way and for the first time, he got a good look at her. The white-ish blond hair stuck out earlier, but it still wondered him as he's never seen anyone with her hair color. She had a very pale complexion and green eyes that fit her. He's never seen anyone like her before. She seemed to calm down a bit, but her face was slightly red. From being embarrassed from the yell or him startling her, he didn't know.

"Uh um…" It seemed she couldn't find the words the say as she stared deeply into his eyes. Almost like she was lost in his eyes. Ash felt a little weird so he decided to speak up.

"I'm Ash!" He stuck out his hand and she seemed to be snap out of what she was doing. Her face became more red, to which he had no understanding of why. She stared at his hand for a second, causing him to raise his eyebrows at her, before she shyly took it.

"I-I'm uh… Lillie." She nervously and quietly said. Lillie barely touched his hand but Ash took a firm hold, shocking the girl. He gave a toothless grin at her before he dropped her hand.

"So why are you walking so far behind? Aren't you excited to see all the Pokemon!?" Ash exclaimed, eyes sparkling after saying the word Pokemon. He loved Pokemon and didn't know why anyone couldn't. He noticed yet again that Lillie starred in slight wonder at his eyes before she snapped out of her trance.

"W-well um…" Lillie once again stumbled on her words and eventually gave up. While Ash was dense at reading people's emotions, he did notice that the question made Lillie's mood worse. He thought quick of something to cheer up, and because of his love of Pokemon and seeing a flock of Pokemon in the trees, he said his next words.

"Look at those Pokemon!" He pointed out to her, hoping to get her distracted from his previous question. It worked as Lillie's attention turned towards the area Ash was pointing to. There were a group of multiple different Pokemon, all looking related to each other.

"Woah, what Pokemon are they?" Ash asked himself, not expecting an answer since he was fallen behind with Lillie and Professor Oak couldn't hear him. He stared at the Pokemon in wonder. His love of Pokemon catching Lillie's attention for a quick moment.

While Ash loved Pokemon, he didn't have much knowledge on them. Being in a small town where most of knowledge came from the TV at his home that his mother limited on, or the rare visits to Professor Oak. He was allowed to play outside and he often tried to play with the Pokemon in the area since his mom didn't allow him to go to far from his house. He still wondered a bit farther, but only for a little bit since he was scared of having his mother scold him, having to deal with that a couple of times.

"Those are bellsprouts, weepinbells, and victreebel." The voice beside him broke his thoughts apart as Lillie identified the Pokemon with no stutters. He stared at her with slight interest, but she wasn't done.

"They're the leaf and flycatcher Pokemon. They love to trap bug type Pokemon so they can eat them." Lillie said, more to herself than Ash. Ash stared at her in amazement, shocked that she knew so much since she seemed to show little interest in Pokemon so far.

"Holy cow! You're so smart!" Ash praised her with eyes full of marvel. Lillie jumped up a bit, forgetting he was there, but not screaming like last night. She blushed at his praised and said a barely audible thank you. What they didn't know was that a certain Pokemon snuck up behind them.

"Vul." Upon hearing the Pokemon, Lillie jumped behind Ash, grabbing his shoulders, once again startled. Ash, while being slightly startled, gazed at Lillie with a confused look, interested and confused by her action. He decided to question it.

"Lillie what's wrong? It's just a vulpix." He asked and signified to her. She peeked over his shoulder to see the orange coloured Pokemon, her curiosity overcoming her slight fear.

"Vul?" The Vulpix stared at Lillie with equal curiosity.

"I-I-I haven't touched a P-Pokemon in Kanto y-yet, I've o-only touched P-Pokemon back from home." She nervously responded, still staring at the vulpix. Ash thought over what she said. He noted that she was curiously staring at the Vulpix and the Vulpix was doing the same. In that moment, he knew what to do. He lightly nudged Lillie in front of him who looked at him with slight panic but she didn't step away

"Pet vulpix Lillie." While the phrase did sound like a command, he gave a toothless grin showing he wasn't trying to force Lillie. She seemed to ponder on what she said.

"O-Ok." She slowly kneeled down and steadily brought her hand over to Vulpix who stared at her hand intently. Her hand started to slightly shake and for a moment she thought she couldn't do it, until Ash grabbed the back of her hand. Her eyes flashed rapidly towards him with surprised. He just gave her an even bigger smile.

He started to lower her hand towards the Vulpix who didn't move, but studied their conjoined hands. Once her hand was barely above Vulpix's head, he stopped, turning his head towards her. She too turned her head to see him looking at her with a soft smile. He nodded his head as if it show that she would touch the Vulpix, not him.

With one shaky breath and one quick moment, she brought their conjoined hands onto the Vulpix.

Ash continued to pester her with questions, to which she nervously answered, but the more he asked, the more she warmed up to him. Eventually she had no nervousness, and while her voice was quiet, her words were clear. They talked about Pokemon and much more, with Ash asking her if she was from here. She'd shooken her head and explained that she came from a region far away called Alola. Ash once again gaped at her in wonder and asked her all about the region.

Lillie had tried to answer the question as best she could, but she couldn't answer all of them, even some basic questions for unknown reasons which Ash thought was kind of strange, but quickly forgot about as another question would pop into his head. He asked her why she was in Kanto, and after some quick fumbling of words he made the question sound positive to Lillie since the question itself sounded quite rude.

Lillie told him that her father passed away not too long ago and that her mother seemed to be sad about the whole ordeal. So she sent her to Kanto for a little bit with a staff member for a little bit. Ash regretted asking, hearing the response and swiftly changed topics, this time, on a more happy topic. One that gave him the chance to make jokes that caused her to giggle.

Gary quickly detected that Ash wasn't beside him and looked back to see him talking with the blonde girl. He was going to go back there to question him about it, but his grandparents pointed something out to the kids, which got the attention of Gary, and he quickly forgot Ash.

The one-track mind of kids.

After a couple of hours of walking, they came back to the lab to see their parents all waiting for them. Most of the kids immediately ran to their parents, but two stayed back. One of the kid's parents were there patiently waiting for him to head towards her, but he instead stayed with her, something that Delia question in her head.

"So where's that staff person?" Ash asked her, looking around for another adult, but he only saw his mom and a rather interesting car he's never seen before. The car seemed to stretch forever according to his childish mind, but in reality the care was around thirty feet in length, something in which caught Lillie's attention.

"There's my ride." She softly said, getting the attention of Ash who was still looking around. He looked at the car in wonder.

"That's your ride! So cool!" He exclaimed with wide eyes, causing the Lillie to giggle at his childish behavior, even though he was older than her, by only a couple of months, but older than her nonetheless.

"Well, I'll see you later Ash." She froze for second. Ash was going to question her but was met with a warm feeling for a moment before it vanished. Lillie hugged him and her face was bright but she gave a small wave. With that she walked to the stretched out vehicle. Ash turned to his mom and ran towards her, hugging her for a quick moment before explaining all the cool Pokemon he saw, already forgetting about the hug.

"Wow that's amazing dear. So I'm guessing you're happy that you made it. Maybe for another reason as well?" She questioned him with subtle humor, seeing the hug the girl gave him. He didn't take notice of the humor in her voice, but he did hear her question.

"Oh yeah, I also met this really awesome girl named Lillie. She was super smart about Pokemon!" Ash stressing super as his eyes filled with awe remembering her talking and explaining many different Pokemon on the walk.

"That's sweet dear." Delia smiled at her son, proud he made a new friend. She knew that even though they were only seven years old when that girl hugged him she knew that she wasn't just being friendly. Maybe the girl didn't realise it. She giggled at the thought.

"Yeah and she's from Alola! A region very far away!" Ash said. Delia raised her eyes at this, she heard of the region before, remembering it was some sort of vacation region, something that interested her.

"Oh, how interesting!"

There we go, the first chapter of this new story. I'm happy with how this turned out and of how quickly I was able to write this. Tbh I thought this was going to take me some time to do, since I haven't written a story in a long time, but I was able to get this chapter done quickly in a short amount of time. Well, that's a good thing I guess.

So in this chapter I did a mix of Pokemon's first episode of Ash sleeping in, Sword and Shield first episode of the walk where Ash slept in and missed the event with Professor Oak, and a bit of Ash helping Serena when they were younger, this time replacing Serena with Ash and Ash 'help' her differently. Those were my inspirations from this chapter.

Tell me how you guys think about the beginning of this short story in the reviews.

I'll catch ya in the next one.