Together To The Top

Chapter 2: Food for thoughts

Back at the lab, everyone began doing different things, Chloe was looking at cool clothes for her Eevee to wear on her phone, Professor Cerise was searching for everyone's lunch since it had been made earlier, Goh was looking for more information about Mew online (like usual), while Ash had gone to take a bath, since two hours of being around dueling Pokémon meant he was quite dirty.

Ash finished his bath, talked to Pikachu for a bit, then went down to the main area.

Professor Cerise had just finished heating the food they were all having for lunch and saw Ash heading down.

He smiled at him before saying "Lunch is ready now."

Ash, Goh, and Chloe made their way to the table where the food was, sat down, and started to eat.

Goh, who was seated next to Ash said to him "Ash, we were waiting for you to eat lunch, but you didn't come back."

Ash looked at Goh and said, "Sorry, guess I didn't realize I took that long."

Chloe then looked at him and said "Weird, you're not one to ever forget eating food."

Goh also looked at Ash, concern clear on his face, and said "Ash, is everything alright? You seemed a little off before."

Ash looked at both and then looked down.

If he was honest with himself, the match against Leon and the pressure it brought was big, and it clearly was affecting him.

He could hear all of the questions that crossed his mind from before again, and just like last time, they didn't stop.

He didn't want to worry his friends about that though, especially after seeing Goh's face filled with concern and said "I'm just a bit nervous about the match with Leon, but it's nothing too important."

Goh and Chloe glanced at each other, both of them sure that Ash seemed different than how he would seem if he was just a bit nervous, but they decided against pressing any further, at least for the time being.

After that, the two started talking about their thoughts on things, how they had been over the last few months, some things they had found interesting, and eventually landed on the topic of Goh's plan of what to do while waiting for Project Mew to need him.

Chloe asked Goh "Goh, you've been going on a journey with Ash around the world for almost a year, are you going to keep doing that or will you mix it up eventually?"

Chloe saw how Goh's eyes started to sparkle all of a sudden as he said "That's a great question Chloe, you see, in my journeys, I have caught many Pokémon, but more importantly I have learned how important it is to bond with my Pokémon.

And if I want to be able to be helpful in Project Mew and catch Mew, then I'll need all of my Pokémon to trust and understand me, just like Ash and his team do, and if battling works out so well for him, then I think I would like to try it as well.

I may never be as good as he is, but I think it could be a nice learning experience, and also one in which I can still travel around catching more Pokémon!"

Chloe was speechless, with her mouth wide open, then she glanced over to see what Ash thought, since what Goh said sounded a lot like something that he'd say, only to find him with a blank expression, like he wasn't listening.

That's weird , Chloe thought but then shrugged it off.

Then Goh told her "Though I'm not sure yet, since I haven't done too much battling beside a few missions and Pokémon catching."

Chloe immediately grinned, remembering some advice a good friend of hers had given her, and told Goh "Well, if you're hesitant, then get yourself moving, because even if you fail, you'll still be left with something.