Ash sighed. He had been in Pallet Town for six months now and he was bored. Delia looked up and asked, "What seems to be the problem Ash?"

Ash replied, "I don't really know. I've been feeling kind of restless lately."

Delia smiled and said, "Finding enjoyment in doing next to nothing has never come easy to you, has it?"

"Is that what this is?"

"Probably, you're just like your father that way."

"'S'at so?"

"Yeah. Why don't you go travelling again?"

"I can't."

"Really? Why ever not?"

"I need to be ready to be called on here. There's no telling what might happen if I'm needed and am off overseas somewhere."

Delia huffed, "You do have a point there...So, why don't you compete in the Pokémon League here then?"

"Don't I need a new set of Badges to do that?"

"No. The Pokémon Monthly last month stated that any set of a Region's badges gained can be reused, As long as you have competed in an Official Tournament within the last five years. So yours still count."

"Really?" Ash asked.

"Why would I lie?"

"Okay, when is it?"

"I think that it starts in a few days, so if you fly over to the Indigo Plateau..."

"Yeah, sure thing," Ash said, getting up from his position, sitting at the table. He rushed out of the house and ran to Professor Oak's Lab.

When he knocked on the door Gary opened it. He said, "Hiya Ash, what's the rush?"

"Oh, it's you Gary!" Ash quietly exclaimed.

"Yeah, I just got home from teaching at the Pokémon Academy. How about you?"

"I've decided to re-enter the Indigo League."

"Oh?" Gary asked, surprised at Ash's intentions, never having known him to redo anything if he could help it. "I didn't think that you'd try for a second go around, after what Charizard did to you there."

"Yeah, well...that was then."

"Indeed. So, who're you taking with you?"

"I don't really know. I just came up with the idea," Ash said, not entirely lying. "That's why I'm here."

"I see," Gary said.

"All I know for sure right now, is that Pikachu and Lucario are definitely going to be coming with me."

"Pikachu I can understand, but why do you keep on taking that Lucario around with you?" Ash sighed and started to tell Gary that he couldn't tell him, but Gary cut him off before he could by saying, "You know what, it's not important," thinking of his taking Espeon and Electivire around while leaving Blastoise at the Oak Ranch. "Come with me," Gary said as he moved out of the doorway and headed to the pokèball Storage Room in his Grandfather's Ranch.

When Ash was in front of his pokèballs, he thought, 'Now, who should I take with me? I need to get there in the first place, so Pidgeot can do that,' as he picked up one pokèball after another, until he had six in hand. He then went outside and whistled loudly, causing all of his Pokémon to rush at him. He returned the six he had chosen to their respective pokèballs before having Pikachu jump on his shoulder and, as he was about to jump on Pidgeot he realised that he'd be needing at the very least one change of clothes. He then jumped on Pidgeot's back and said, "Looks like we need to head on home first Pidgeot," causing Pidgeot to cry out before taking to the skies, his other Pokémon returning to their respective homes on the Ranch, most kind of disappointed that they weren't going with him, but none more so than Meganium.

Three hours later Ash was circling around Indigo Stadium, contemplating whether he should, or should not, enter. In the end he said to himself, "Ah, what am I doing? Screw it, I'll just do what I always do. Sign up for it and then deal with the repercussions later." Pidgeot descended at a rapid pace, pulling up just before they crash landed, setting down just in front of the Pokècentre. Ash walked in and saw that there was still a rather large line in order to register. He waited around for about an hour until it was finally his turn. He approached the desk and said, "Hey Nurse Joy, I'm sure you've heard this a gazillion times already, but I'm here to register for the Pokémon League Tournament."

"You're right, I have. I'll register you right away though," the Nurse Joy said.

"If you don't mind me asking, which one are you?"

"Me? I'm in charge of the Indigo Plateau Pokècentre."

"Really?" Ash asked, frowning, "The last time I was here, they just got some Nurse Joy from another Pokècentre to take care of things here for a few weeks."

"Yes. That used to be the case, but when the Battle Frontier moved their headquarters here, things started to get rather hectic and I was called in to take over full time."

"I see," Ash commented.

"I'll need your Pokèdex to register you."

"Sure, here you are," Ash said, handing her the Pokèdex that he had made sure to grab before leaving Pallet Town.

Nurse Joy pushed the Pokèdex into a slot in her desk, which registered Ash's trainer data on their system. She said, "There you go, now you're registered," handing Ash's Pokèdex back to him.

"Thanks," Ash said, "When is my first battle?"

"Oh! The competition is being run a little differently this year."

"Differently?"

"Yes. You see, since the Battle Frontier moved here, Mr. Goodshow invited Scott to participate in the running of this year's Pokèmon League Competition. Because of that, and the larger amount of participants, this time the first round consists of a Contest Performance Round. A round robin of strict Pokèmon battles starts after that. The trainers of that Round are the top eight of each of the fields. After that is a tag-team battle where each trainer can use a maximum of three Pokémon each. Then there are the finals. When they reach the Top 8 the remaining battles are all six-on-six full battles."

"Alright, thanks Nurse Joy," Ash said, "How do I determine which field I'm battling on?"

"They are randomly assigned the day before the Competition begins."

"Alright, thanks...About accommodation...?"

"All hotels in Indigo Plateau are free for competing trainers and their friends. If there are no longer any places available, there are rooms here in the Pokècentre for use."

"Alright, thanks," Ash said for the final time as he retrieved his Pokèdex and left the Pokècentre to look for a hotel.

XXXXX

Ash found a hotel that he could make use of for the rest of the Competition, with self-contained rooms, and spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking all of the junk that his mother had managed to stuff into his backpack before he had returned to pack himself. He took special note of the amount of underwear that she packed. When he was done he found that, to his shock, it was already six o'clock, so, not wanting to roam all over the city...because it really was a city...looking for a place to eat, he went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant to see what they had when he saw a plate full of steamed broccoli and cauliflower, on top of a massive mound of flat rice noodles. He thought, 'There's only one person that I know that has that...Leaf!' and followed the waiter's path with his eyes to his inevitable destination. When he saw his old friend accept the meal he walked over and sat down after she had started to somehow start to shovel the meal down with chopsticks.

Not looking up from her meal Leaf said, "Ya know it's not very polite to sit at a lady's table uninvited?"

"That would be true," Ash said, "if there were any ladies here that is." Leaf's eyes flashed. "All I can see is a Red Leaf."

Leaf's eyes widened, still not having looked up stuffing her face, and asked, "Ash?" as he was the only one that had ever used that ridiculous name for her.

"The one and only."

Leaf finally looked up at the trainer that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of since they had both started their Pokèmon journey's eight years ago. She stood up and veritably launched herself over the round table, causing them, and the table to crash on the ground, tears coming to her eyes as she dug her face into his chest, not wanting him to see them. Ash wrapped his arms around her. They lay there like that until the waiter that had given her her meal came over and, with a rather stern look on his face, said, "You are going to pay the damages, right?" referring to the table legs that had been broken.

Leaf said, "Ash can handle it."

She had said it in a cute tone that Ash had never been able to refuse, causing him to sigh and say, "How much," over Leaf's unmoving shoulder.

"It will need to be valued."

Ash sighed again and said, "Fine, I'm staying here for the duration of the tournament anyway. Just come and get me when it's done."

"Very well, sir," the waiter said snootily, noting Ash's choice of clothing, black jeans, black shoes, a black, long sleeved, shirt and a royal blue coat with no sleeves, plus a blue fedora with a black band and a flared back, in comparison with Leaf's choice of a long blue dress with, for some reason, a straw summer hat with a blue ribbon running around it, tied off with a bow. She also had a black silk shawl that was currently resting on her chair, the only one at the table still where it was meant to be.

After a while Ash said, "Uhh...Leaf...?" tapping her on her shoulder.

"Yes, Ash?"

"Not that I don't like it, but can you get off of me?" Ash said, kind of uncomfortable, but not overly so, with her rather large tits pressing up against him.

"Get off...?" her eyes widening at their situation and launched herself off him, almost as hard as she had launched herself onto him. "So..."

"So."

"What do you want to do?"

"Hmm...the way I remember it, we left on some rather strange terms, didn't we?"

"Hmm..." Leaf said, thinking back to their last time together before leaving on their own Pokèmon journeys, hers going to Hoenn, Ash staying in Kanto. "Ahh!" she screamed, "You were saying that battling is more important that making your Pokémon look fancy, didn't you?"

"I believe that I may have said something to that effect."

"Well, I've since come to the conclusion that they are both as important as each other."

"Oh?"

"What about you?"

"The same. I take it that since you said something like that, you're competing?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"It looks like we'll finally get to have that battle that we wanted then."

"Wait...you're..."

"Yeah, sure am."

Leaf smiled and said, "Well then, it looks like we're going to be rivals then."

"Rivals? You and me? Never going to happen. We might fight a bit every now and then, but rivals?"

"I'm going to use everything I've learnt to defeat you, Ash Ketchum!" Leaf declared to the restaurant's customer's.

"Don't you forget, I'm just the same," Ash said. He smiled before saying, "I'm glad you're here Leaf."

"I'm glad you're here too, Ash."

"But unfortunately it looks like I'm going to need to find another Hotel to stay at."

"Huh?"

"If I stay here, I'll never get any sleep," Ash grinned. Leaf's face turned red and she slapped him. Hard. "Yeah, you haven't changed." Leaf growled and turned on her heel, harrumphing before stomping out of the restaurant, forgetting that she was ever hungry at all. Ash saw the waiter coming over and, before the waiter could say anything, he said, "I know, I'm paying for her food too." The waiter strutted away. Ash sighed and said, "I just know that this is going to be my most expensive Pokémon League Competition yet." Ash went to the front desk and paid for Leaf's meal. He also got a takeaway variant of the same, along with some Chicken Chop Suey for himself. He left the copy of Leaf's meal at the reception desk and paid them to take it to Leaf's room, wherever it was before heading up to his own room. He ate his meal, and logged on to the Pokèmon League's website to read up about he rules and regulations for the upcoming rounds, finding that for the Performance Round he could use as many Pokémon as he wanted, but no more than three. Once he had reread the rules and regulations he thought on strategies for the upcoming match. Once he had decided on one he went to bed.

XXXXXX

A/N

I have most of the second chapter written, however I am having problems coming up with character names. I would be much obliged if you would place some suggestions in a review

Sincerely,

shane1594