A/N: Firstly, thanks to my reviewers! You guys are awesome :).

I just want to apologise to my readers for not updating in like...forever! This chapter has actually been ready for quite some time, I just failed at getting it uploaded! On a positive note, I have almost finished the chapter that comes...after the next chapter...I know I know, totally out of order, but I had the inspiration and just had to write it out. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter, and I'll get the next couple up shortly! Don't forget to R&R!

Discliamer: I do not own Pokemon or Sailor Moon

6. Today must be Cat-urday...

Ash and Usagi left Pallet Town less than a week after arriving, the pair cheerily waving goodbye to Ash's mother, who put on a brave face as she watched her son disappear for the umpteenth time up the road. As per usual, Ash left all his pokemon with Professor Oak, except Pikachu, who was happily riding on Ash's shoulder.

Ash wanted to check out a new region Professor Oak had told him about – Unova. But to get there, they had to catch the ferry out of Vermillion City. "It'll be awesome!" Ash was gushing about it. "I hear they have some really cool pokemon. And we can see Misty and Brock on our way to Vermillion!"

Ash had been a little sad when Brock had left him only a few weeks earlier, telling him that he was going to go on to become a pokemon doctor. Any extra time he could spend with the older boy would be great in his books. And as for Misty...well...Ash felt a little guilty he hadn't dropped in to see her on his way back to Pallet, but he had been eager to taste his mum's home cooking after so long.

Usagi had healed up during the few days rest, but still had some minor scars, a distinct reminder of her loss of memory. However her excitement over her newly acquired Cleffa and her pokemon trainer journey had pushed her memory loss concerns aside for the moment.

"So, do you think you'll be a trainer or a coordinator? Or maybe both! I know some people who do that," Ash chatted away to Usagi as they came up to Viridian Forest.

"I'm really not sure," she answered, holding her Cleffa in her arms. "They both sound fun, although being a trainer sounds a little...dangerous. And hurts the pokemon." She gave Cleffa a tight squeeze, not wanting anything to happen to the ball of pink cuteness in her arms. It squeaked indignantly.

"But some pokemon like battles – it tests their courage and skills against other strong pokemon, right Pikachu?"

"Pi."

"I guess so," Usagi said, glancing down at her Cleffa as they continued walking.

Usagi and Ash were chatting about gym badges when there was a rustling in the grass nearby. Usagi nearly jumped out of her skin, but Ash excitedly pulled out his pokedex, pointing it at the small green pokemon that emerged for Usagi's benefit.

"Caterpie. A bug pokemon. It's voracious appetite compels it to devour leaves bigger than itself without hesitation. It releases a terribly strong odour from its antennae."

"Cool!" Ash said as he stuffed the pokedex back into his jacket pocket. "You want to fight it, Usagi? Caterpies are really low level, so it should be a breeze for your Cleffa."

Usagi stepped back from the weird-looking bug pokemon, which seemed to be eyeballing her. "I don't know..."

Cleffa wriggled in her arms and looked up at her. "You want to fight?" she asked it, surprised. It nodded more vigorously, and squirmed, hopping out of her arms and on to the ground, taking a determined stance.

"Cleff cleffa cleff."

"Well, okay, if you're sure..." she said, uncertainty evident in her voice.

"You can do it Usagi! You just have to believe in yourself and trust your pokemon!" Ash cheered from the sidelines.

Usagi took her position a couple metres behind her Cleffa. She'd spent a fair amount of time learning everything she could about her new pokemon, so she knew Cleffa's moves off by heart.

The Caterpie snorted, ready to fight this upstart new trainer.

"Okay! Cleffa! Um...use...Charm on that caterpillar!" Usagi instructed, pointing at the Caterpie. Ash tried not to laugh at Usagi's verbal error. Who ever heard of a caterPILLAR?

Cleffa struck a cute pose, winking at the Caterpie. The look of determination on the Caterpie's face diminished a little, but it quickly retaliated, firing a string shot at Cleffa. Cleffa squeaked as both its hands became entangled in the sticky substance.

"Ewww! No! Cleffa, use...um...Pound! Break out of that stuff!"

Cleffa began to pound the ground, causing dirt to fly everywhere, covering up the stickiness but not freeing her hands. The Caterpie lurched forward in a Tackle, determined not to let this little fairy beat it. "Watch out Cleffa!" Usagi yelled, resisting the urge to run forward and bat the Caterpie away from her pokemon.

Cleffa clumsily managed to dodge the attack, but now she was stuck with a tree at her back. Usagi had a flash of inspiration. "Cleffa, use the rough bark to rub that gooey stuff off your hands!"

Cleffa instantly went to work, madly shredding the sticky string off her hands. The Caterpie rounded for another Tackle just as Cleffa was able to get her hands clean of the string. "Cleffa quick! Dodge that and use Pound on Caterpie," Usagi cried out, adrenaline rushing.

Cleffa waited until the best moment, and then cart wheeled out of the way as the Caterpie hit the tree instead, stunning itself. Before it had a chance to recover, Cleffa hit it with a Pound attack, causing it to faint. Ash gestured frantically at her. "Throw a ball at it Usagi! Before it wakes up!"

Usagi blinked, and began rummaging through her backpack, strewing stuff across the nearby area. Ash groaned, completely forgetting how bad he had been when he first started. "AHA!" Usagi triumphantly stood up, holding one of the balls. Of course the pokeballs would be buried at the bottom of her bag. She enlarged it, and tossed it carefully at the unconscious Caterpie. It was sucked into the pokeball with a flash, rocking only once before the red light beeped off.

"YEAH! YOU CAUGHT A CATERPIE!" Ash pumped a fist in the air, Pikachu mimicking him.

Usagi stared at the still ball for a second, before breaking out into a huge grin. She ran over to the ball and her Cleffa, giving Cleffa a huge hug as she scooped up the pokeball. "You were awesome Cleffa!" "Cleff cleffa," Cleffa said happily. "Yay I caught my first pokemon!"

The Glameow woke up, its whole body aching. It looked around, confused. It meowed, and swiftly blinked, seemingly surprised to hear its own voice. It moved its head around, surveying its body before giving a surprised squeal of horror. Spying a pond nearby, the Glameow dashed over to it, inspecting its reflection.

What in the world? It slowly sat back, thinking. Its curled tail twitched back and forth as anxiety began to seep in. The Glameow suddenly shook itself, trying to clear its head, and trotted back to the area she had woken up. From that point, she began moving in wider and wider circles, seemingly searching for something...or someone.

Usagi didn't like the idea of keeping pokemon confined in their balls, so she released Caterpie almost as soon as she caught it. The Caterpie, which Dex had confirmed as female, was now sitting draped over her shoulder, making cute crooning noises in her ear. Cleffa, was still wrapped in Usagi's arms, while Pikachu was riding in his usual position on Ash's shoulder.

The thrill of being a pokemon trainer was already starting to wear off for Usagi, who was getting tired of tramping through the forest. "How long until we get to the next city?" she whined mid-afternoon, her legs already hurting. Ash grinned at her. She reminded him a lot of Dawn, who always wanted to sleep in a real bed rather than camp out. "Not too long. Probably tomorrow mid-morning, depending on if we run into other trainers or pokemon."

"But I'm hungry!" she wailed, slumping to the ground.

Ash laughed. "Me too! Let's stop for a break. I'm pretty sure I saw my mom stash chips and chocolate into our bags this morning."

Faster than Ash would have thought possible, Usagi had her backpack off and upended over the grass. Caterpie had tumbled off her shoulder, giving her an indignant "Terpie!", before wandering over to a tasty looking bush.

Ash and Pikachu sat down next to Usagi, who had already ripped open a packet of chips and was stuffing them into her mouth. Pikachu made a face and pointed between Ash and Usagi. "H...hey! I am not just like that!" Ash replied, embarrassed. Cleffa and Usagi both burst out laughing, having seen what Ash was like at the dinner table.

"Okay...maybe a little," he grumbled as he fished around in his own bag for chips.

Once they had both finished stuffing themselves with junk food, Usagi stood and stretched, feeling refreshed. "Okay! I can totally get through this forest!" she said cheerfully, pumping one hand into the air. Ash grinned at her before scrambling up and picking up his backpack again. "Yeah! And maybe we'll see more cool pokemon before we leave the forest!"

In truth, it had been a little quiet, but Ash tallied that up to the fact that he and Usagi had been chatting almost non-stop since they entered. They were probably scaring away all the bug types that lived here.

The Glameow watched as they left the area, safely hidden from prying eyes amongst the leaves of a tree. Hopping down, it padded silently after them, always making sure to remain at a distance, and out of sight.

It was midday the following day when they started noticing the trees beginning to thin out around them, allowing more light to seep in. Ash had been surprised at how easily Usagi had been able to fall asleep the previous night. In fact, both of them had overslept – Pikachu had actually needed to give them each a sharp zap to get them up and moving, otherwise, Pikachu was sure, they both would have slept until noon.

They had seen a number of other bug pokemon the previous day, mostly weedles and caterpie. They'd even caught a glimpse of a pincer, but Usagi hadn't been interested in catching them, happy with the two she currently had. Ash, on the other hand, had become insanely excited when they came across a hard-to-find scyther. He'd always wanted one because they looked so cool and strong.

It had taken some effort, even with Pikachu, because the scyther was ridiculously fast, but he eventually managed to catch it (after about four pokeball attempts), putting him in a great mood.

"We're almost out of here, Usagi," Ash said cheerfully as they walked. "Then it's a short walk to Pewter City." Usagi grinned back at him – despite being woken up unexpectedly via electric shock, she was surprisingly chirpy.

"I can't wait to see Bro..." Ash was cut off as the bushes nearby rustled, and a blue grey blur whizzed out towards them. "What the..."

The pokemon wrapped itself around Usagi's legs, purring profusely, its tail bouncing every time it got caught. Usagi was caught off guard, and almost fell over. Both Cleffa and Caterpie squeaked, gripping on to Usagi's clothes as she reeled. Careful not to drop either of them, Usagi took out her pokedex and pointed it at the cat-like pokemon the way Ash showed her.

"Glameow. The Catty pokemon. When it's happy, Glameow demonstrates beautiful movements of its tail, like a dancing ribbon."

Usagi pocketed her pokedex and squatted down so she could pat the Glameow. "Well you are a cutie." She frowned. The Glameow looked a little different to the one in the pokedex. It had a cute white crescent moon on its forehead.

"A Glameow, that's cool! One of my friend's has one – she's a coordinator, and her Glameow is great," Ash exclaimed, coming over to pat it. The Glameow instantly hissed and swiped at Ash's hand, which he pulled back hurriedly.

Pikachu jumped down off Ash's shoulder, scolding the Glameow. It cocked its head before replying, "Meow, Glam glam, glameow." Pikachu's eyes grew wide. "Pi pikachu!"

Glameow went back to nuzzling Usagi, who was a little confused by what was happening.

"Um...what's going on?" she asked Ash and Pikachu as she petted the cat pokemon.

Pikachu pointed to an empty pokeball on her belt. "Chu pika pika."

Usagi blinked before turning back to the Glameow. "You want me to catch you?" The Glameow shook its head. "You want to come with me?" The Glameow nodded. "But not be caught by me?" The Glameow appeared to roll its eyes before nodding.

"Soooo..." Usagi said slowly, trying to work it out. "You want to be a free pokemon, but you want me to train you?" Glameow nodded. "Okay cool! I can do that. Just make sure you don't get caught by anyone else," Usagi said cheerfully, standing up. The Glameow gave her a dirty look.

"Are you okay to walk next to me? I'm running out of shoulders and arms..." The Glameow rolled its eyes again and swiped at Usagi's ankle. "YEEOCH! Okay okay! I get it! Sheesh," Usagi muttered, as she began to walk.

Laughing, Ash quickly caught up to Usagi as they passed the sign pointing towards Pewter City. "Looks like a love hate relationship," he teased. "But cool, you kind of have a Glameow!"

As they walked on, Ash missed the calculating expression on Pikachu's face as he glanced between Usagi and Glameow.

A/N: So, an Ash and Usagi-centric chapter this time! And yay, Usagi caught her first pokemon! And Ash caught a new pokemon! What will come up next time? You'll just have to wait and see ;). Don't forget to R&R!

~Gummi