Chapter One

Brock, Ash and Dawn had taken a brief break from their Sinnoh journey to attend Delia's wedding in Pallet Town. A year and a half ago, she had met the man of her dreams, one of those rock-hard-on-the-outside, yet soft-and-mushy-on-the-inside kind of people, named Ryan. Ash and Ryan had never really seen eye-to-eye, but Ash was willing to accept him for his mother's sake.

Probably the worst part about Delia and Ryan getting married was that Ash would have to put up with Caitlyn, Ryan's 10-year-old daughter. There was quite a big age difference between Ash, who was 16, and his "wicked step-sister", as he put it.

Ash had insisted that Brock came to the wedding, considering that they had been best friends ever since Ash had started his journey. At first, Brock was a little reluctant to go, but at the mention of the possibility of "hot girls", his 19-year-old, hormone-crazed mind had a change of heart.

Dawn, on the other hand, immediately accepted the invitation to the wedding, partially just as an excuse to go shopping all day for extravagant dresses, jewelry, and other things she could probably live without. She had known Ash and Brock for a little less than a year, after traveling through the Sinnoh region together. Dawn, being 14, was usually looked down upon as the "little sister" of the group, so she and Ash periodically had small arguments, but were friends nonetheless.

Misty was visiting from Cerulean City, since she had been friends with Ash for a few years, and was pretty close to Delia. Now 17, Misty had learned a lot while traveling through Kanto with Ash, and wanted to be there with him (and Delia) during such an important event.

And then there were May and Max. The Maple family had also been invited to the wedding, since Caroline, May and Max's mother, and Delia had become such good friends while their children traveled together, and Norman, the father, was pretty much just part of the package (though he and Delia were somewhat close). May was 15 and Max was 12, so they had their typical sibling quarrels. Even though they argued on a regular basis while they were traveling, Ash and Brock knew that somewhere, deep in their hearts, May and Max really did care about each other. May and Max hadn't seen Ash or Brock for nearly a year, the last time being during their travels in Hoenn, so they wanted to visit them in Pallet to catch up and discuss their journeys. When Ash invited them to his mother's wedding, May was absolutely thrilled, but Max refused to go—or, at least until May literally dragged him along with her and their parents.

Ash, Brock, Misty, and Dawn were sitting in the living room of the Ketchum household, playing Uno at the coffee table in the center of the room. Dawn had won the past five games, and the other three players weren't finding much enjoyment out of the game.

"HA! Uno out!" Dawn exclaimed joyfully, tossing her last card onto the table. "That's, what…six for six now?"

"Yeah. Congratulations," Brock said sarcastically as he, Misty and Ash threw their cards sloppily onto the table in defeat.

"Oh, come on, don't be bummed out just because I won all six games," Dawn said, smiling.

"Well, I've had enough of this stupid game," Misty said.

"Yeah, I'm done, too," Ash agreed. "I'm sick of losing."

"Cough, sore loser, cough," Dawn teased.

Ash turned around when he heard footsteps coming from the kitchen. His mother had the telephone receiver in her right hand, and motioned for him to follow her back into the kitchen. Ash got up, thankful for an excuse to get away from Dawn and her gloating, and left the room.

"Ash, dear, May's on the phone for you," Delia whispered, handing her son the phone as she walked away to give him some privacy.

Ash took the receiver, placed it to his ear and said in a happy tone, "Hi, May!"

"Hi, Ash!" he heard the familiar voice say from the other end of the phone. "It's good to talk to you again."

"Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it?" he replied.

"Yeah, it has. Well, the reason I called is that our ship will be docking in a few minutes, and I was just making sure someone over there is still picking us up." May said.

"Of course," Ash answered. "I'll leave for the harbor right now."

"Okay," May said. "Well, I guess I'll see ya soon then."

"Yep, see ya soon. Bye, May."

"Bye, Ash."

After he hung up the phone, Ash grabbed his car keys off the kitchen counter, and walked through the living room to the front door. "Hey, Mom, I'm going to pick up May and Max from the harbor now. I'll be back soon," he said to Delia, who had started a conversation with the two girls about her wedding the coming Sunday.

"Alright, dear. Be careful," she replied, briefly glancing in his direction before returning to her conversation.

Ash hurried out the door and got in his car, started the engine, and drove off toward the harbor. He was worried that his mom would lecture him again about "safety behind the wheel" for the umpteenth time, considering he had only had his license for a few months, but he apparently had gotten lucky that time.

Ash arrived at the Pallet Town Harbor in about 20 minutes, and hurried off to the docks, figuring that May and Max had probably already gotten off the ship. He searched the crowd, trying to find his friends, but with so many people moving in every direction, it was difficult to focus on any one person in particular.

After searching for close to ten minutes, Ash still hadn't seen any sign of any of the Maples. He turned around when he felt a light tapping on his shoulder, and saw Max standing in front of him.

"Hey, Max! It's great to see you!" Ash said as he and the younger boy briefly hugged.

"Hi, Ash!" Max replied with a smile. "I have so many stories to tell you about my journey in Hoenn! I've caught 20 Pokémon so far!"

"Wow, Max, sounds like you're doing great so far," Ash complimented. "Wait, where's May?"

Seconds later, a figure pushed past a group of people in front of Ash and Max, stumbling slightly in the process. "MAX! Where the heck did you--," May started, before losing her footing and falling forward. Ash ran toward her and caught her before she hit the ground, his arms supported her as she regained her balance and stood up straight again. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry, I wasn't--," May began to say, but stopped mid-sentence as she looked up at the person who caught her.

"Ya know, for a Pokémon Coordinator, you sure aren't' very coordinated," Ash teased as he looked down at her.

May smiled brightly as she looked into his eyes. "Oh, Ash, it's really you!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Ash wrapped his arms around her torso, also smiling as he hugged his friend he hadn't seen in nearly a year.

"Uh, excuse me, but could you two please stop being all lovey-dovey or whatever?" Max said with an odd expression on his face.

"Max, would you stop being so dramatic?" May snapped at her brother as she and Ash pulled apart after a few seconds. "I mean, we're, like, best friends, and we haven't seen each other in a long time."

"Whatever," Max said.

"So, should we head back over to my house?" Ash asked the siblings.

"Okay," May answered. Max simply shrugged his shoulders.

The trio made their way back through the crowd in an attempt to get to the parking lot. They were silent on the walk over, partly because the docks were too noisy to be able to be heard even if they tried to talk. When they reached Ash's car, he unlocked the doors and helped May and Max load their bags into the trunk. Ash then got in the driver's seat, May sat next to him in the passenger's seat, and Max sat behind May in the back seat.

"Hey, May, I thought that your parents were coming to the wedding," Ash said once they were on their way back to his house.

"They're coming, but my dad had some work to finish up in the Petalburg gym, and my mom had to spend a little extra time in the greenhouse," May answered. "They're sailing over on Sunday morning, but Max and I wanted to come earlier to spend some time catching up with you and Brock."

"Yeah, Max told me that his journey in Hoenn was going really well," Ash said. "So, May, how're your contests going in Johto?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," May answered in a casual tone. "And to be honest, I was really glad you invited me to your mom's wedding. It gave me a reasonable excuse to get away from Drew and Harley for a while."

"What'd they do now?" Ash asked with a chuckle, glancing to his right for a moment to look in her direction.

"Drew won't stop nagging me about 'giving it my all' and trying to convince that my strategy will never work. Although, I already have three ribbons, and he only has one. And Harley's just being…Harley," she said.

Ash laughed as they continued the drive to his house. He and May told a few stories about what they had been doing while they had been apart, and Max would occasionally cut in to brag about his journey. They pulled into the driveway a while later, and the three got out of the car, getting the bags out of the car. Ash opened the front door as May and Max walked in the house, before entering himself.

"Mom, we're back!" Ash called to his mother.

Delia immediately appeared from the kitchen, embracing May in a tight hug. "Oh, it's so nice to see you, dear!" she said. May gave Ash a pleading look from over Delia's shoulder, his mother practically squeezing the air out of her.

"Um… Mom, you could probably let her go now," Ash told his mother.

Delia realized how hard she was hugging May, and quickly let go. "Oops! Sorry, May, but I haven't seen you in close to a year and a half! Oh, Max, how are you, sweetie?" She gave him a quick hug, knowing he wouldn't be quite as willing as his sister.