Ash and Serena arrived back home to the delicious smell of Delia and Mimey's cooking. "Smells good mom." "Do you need any help Delia?" Ash and Serena said as they entered their home. "No thank you. Everything is almost done. I was thinking we would eat outside, so why don't you two go sit at the table and wait, Red should be here soon." Said Delia as she was putting the finishing touches on dinner. Ash and Serena were about to sit down when they heard the loud roar of a Charizard. Ash looked at his, but he shook his head and pointed up. When he looked he saw a Charizard that was even bigger than his coming in for a landing, with none other than Red sitting on his back. After dismounting his Charizard Red was greeted by Ash and Serena, "welcome to my home Red, dinner should be out soon." Said Ash as they shook hands. Red looked around and saw all of Ash and Serena's Pokemon out and scattered around the property, playing, training, resting, or just conversing with one another. "This is a very nice home you have here, do you mind if I release my Pokemon so they can meet yours?" "Sure no problem. They're welcome to the food also, our Pokemon can show them where it is." Red released his other five Pokemon which consisted of an Aerodactyl, a Pikachu, a Garchomp, an Espeon, an a Lapras that he released into a pool of water with the other water types. Ash then noticed the backpack on Reds shoulder, "What's with the backpack?" "Thanks for reminding me, I have something for you." "For me?" Ash looked at Red confused. Red then pulled out an incubator with a blue and black Pokemon egg inside and handed it to Ash. "It's a Riolu egg. I found it a couple weeks ago abandoned in a forest in the Sinnoh region. It will need a good trainer when it hatches and I thought you would be perfect for it." Ash took the incubator, "thank you Red. But I need to ask, why aren't you able to take care of it?" Red looked at Ash with a slightly nervous expression, "That's something I will tell you about later." Red then walked off to the table where Delia and Mimey were placing the food. Ash watched him as he walked toward his mother with a suspicious look in his eye's. "Ash are you ok." Asked Serena noticing Ash's eyes. Ash looked at her, "something is going on, Red is known to never show his emotions, but I've seen him show several emotions toward my mom and I. Whatever it is, I think it's big." Ash the kissed Serena's head and they both walked to the table. Once reaching the table Red spoke to Delia, "So I take it you never told him." "I've been to afraid too, I didn't know how he would take it. But seeing the kind of man he's become, I think he'll be able to forgive now. I know I could." Red gave a weak smile upon hearing this.

Dinner was, as always when cooked by Delia, delicious. Combined with good conversation the evening was going great. Ash tried to get Red to tell stories of when he was a young trainer, and got a few good ones, but Red tried to keep the conversation on Ash and his journeys. Ash didn't mind this too much as most of his journeys were before Serena and there were still a few that she and Delia hadn't heard yet. While Ash would tell his stories, he noticed how Red listened with such interest, he also noticed how Red would sometimes look at Delia and smile at her when he didn't think anyone was looking. Eventually dinner was over. "Delia your food was delicious, I would have never expected it would have gotten better." Red complimented. "Thank you Red, just wait for desert." Delia said with a light blush. Delia brought out the platter of cookies, "my favorite, you remembered." Red said with a smile. "Ok that's it, what's going on here?" Said Ash. This caused everyone to stop. "What do you mean Ash?" Delia asked slightly nervous. "I know I'm still a little dense, but you two make it pretty obvious there is something going on between you two. You know each other don't you?" Red put the cookie down and Delia sat down. "Ash, What did your mother tell you about your father?" Red asked. "Not much. Just that he was a trainer on a journey." "Ash, Red is you father." Stated Delia. Ask shot up, his face was a mixture of shock and anger. Ash tried to speak but only syllables of words came out as so many questions and things to say came to his mind all at once. He was breathing heavily, Serena then put her hand on Ash, "take a deep breath Ash, try to calm down." Ash listened and started to calm himself as he sat down. "Ash I'm sure you have alot going through your head right now, let me explain." Said Red. "Explain? What is there for you to explain? I grew up without a father because you were off on adventures. When I was little I used to dream about these grand adventures my father was on, that he would tell me about when he came home. But he never came, eventually I thought he just didn't love us. When I left on my own journey and saw how dangerous it was I started to think he must have died on his journey and that my mother just couldn't bear to tell me, this actually brought me comfort. But I was wrong, my father was living it up as the world Champion, not wanting to bother with us like we were beneath him! Why? Why weren't you there when we needed you? When mom was struggling to keep a roof over our head and keep food on the table, where were you?! When those sons of bitchs betrayed me and went after mom, why didn't you come help?! Why after all these years are you back now?!" Ash yelled. He calmed himself as he saw the tears running down Reds face. "Ash," Ash looked to Delia, "it's not all his fault. I told him to stay away." Ash was taken back by this and sat down, "Ok you two, explain."

Red took a deep breath, "let's start at the very beginning. I grew up in Pallet town just like you, and back then Delia was my best friend. When I turned ten I started my Pokemon journey, I wanted Delia to come but as much as she loved Pokemon she was scared to travel all over the region more. So she could still see so many Pokemon I would take pictures of every Pokemon I caught and sent letters telling her about my journey. After I won the indigo league I felt something new when I looked at her. And when I came home from winning the Johto league at fourteen she kissed me, and then everything was clear to me, I was in love with her. I stayed in pallet longer so we could spend more time together. Eventually I had to go chase my dream, but now after I won a region I came to see her first." Red sighed, Delia put her hand on his to comfort him. Red then continued, "things started to go wrong after Kalos..."

Flashback
Red 18
Delia 18

Red was flying on the back of his first Pokemon, Charizard, heading home to pallet town after winning the Kalos league. They were coming up onto professor Oaks lab, but they weren't heading there. They were on their way to a bakery in down town Pallet. Once they saw it from above they came in for a landing not far from the bakery. Red climbed off and was about to return Charizard when he noticed the pleading look on his face. Red sighed as he knew what this was about, "fine, I'll get you a pokepuff." Charizard then smiled as red returned him to his pokeball. Charizard had become quite fond of pokepuffs and always begged Red for them when they were going into a town, but the ones at this bakery were his favorite. Red walks in, as he does a bell rings, "I'll be right with you," he heard from the kitchen. In a few moments a young women walks in wearing a white apron, and drying her hands. "So what can I...." she stops as she sees Red, her eyes wide. "Hey Delia, I'm back." Red said with a smile. Delia returns the smile as she runs to him, jumping up and wrapping her legs around him as she starts kissing him. Red balance was thrown off only for a second as he adjusted, and put his hands on Delia's butt to support her, and give it a squeeze. "Eeeek." Was Delia's response when he squeezed her butt. "You need to wait till after I get off work for that." She whispered in his ear. They then heard someone clearing their throat coming from the kitchen door. They looked and saw it was Delia's boss with his arms crossed and an eye brow raised. Delia jumped down from Red, "I'm sorry Mr. Forest, I'll get back to work." He just smiled and shook his head as he let out a chuckle, "kids." He then walked up to Red and put out his hand, "watched you show the Kalos league what Kanto trainers are made of, well done." Red took his hand and shook it, "Thanks, they didn't make it easy though." "Delia, put out those loafs of bread that just came out and you can call it a day early." Said Mr. Forest. "Oh thank you." Delia exclaimed as she gave him a quick hug and ran to the kitchen. Moments later she came back out with the tray of bread, quickly put it out, removed her apron and threw it into a basket and began to skip to Red. "Oops, almost forgot." She then went back behind the counter, put two pokepuffs for fire types into a bag, and put some money into the register. Red sighed, "your spoiling him you know." Said Red as Delia walked to him. "True, but he keeps you safe and brings you back home to me. So I think he deserves them." Delia replied, she then kissed Red and they walked out of the bakery and in hand.

Red and Delia were walking together down the street with Delia leading the way. "So where are we going?" Red asked. "You haven't seen my apartment yet, I want to show it to you." Delia said with sly smile. Red noticed this and became nervous, but continued to go with Delia knowing whatever she had planned couldn't be too bad. Soon enough they arrived at her apartment, it wasn't very big, but not very small either, just the right size for one person, or a young couple. "Make yourself comfortable, I'm going to go change my clothes." Said Delia with another sly smile as she walked into the bedroom. Red took off his shoes and got himself a glass of water. He then sat down on the couch and waited, he knew whatever she had planned was going to happen soon. Meanwhile in the bedroom Delia had already changed her clothes and had her hand on the door knob. She was frozen, nervous about what she was about to do. She knew after this her relationship with Red would never be the same. She knew they were in love, but were they both ready for this? Delia thought back over everything they had been through, from both of them realizing their feelings for one another, to confessing those feelings, to maintaining a long distance relationship. In the end she had one question, were they soulmates, her answer yes. With a new surge of confidence she opened the door, "So what do you think." Red looked up at her, when his eyes laid on her his jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide. There was very little to her clothes, it was black and mostly lace, with the only not see through areas were at her breast and the front of her underwear. Delia looked at him, even though she looked confident on the outside, on the inside she was so scared she was screaming. All she wanted was for Red to say something, and finally he did. "Wow." Delia was feeling more confident so she walked very seductively toward him, "So do you like it, I got it with you in mind." Red couldn't speak, all he did was nod his head. Delia took a deep breath and knelt down in front of him, "Red I love you, more than anything. When I see my future I see us together forever. If you don't feel the same or aren't ready for this I would understand." Delia said looking down as she said the last part. Red then put his right hand under her chin and tilted her head back up to look at him, "I feel the same, I want forever. And I am ready." Delia smiled as she stood up, grabing Red by the shirt bring him up as well. She then kissed him passionately as she slid off his jacket. She the turned around and walked to the bedroom, when she entered the doorway she winked and with one finger motioned for Red to follow. As he walked he knew nothing would ever be the same again.

Over the next three months Red moved in with Delia before he would have to leave for the Sinnoh region. Sinnoh was getting it's own league and this would be the last one needed before he was going to challange the world Champion. All he was waiting for was for professor Oak to tell him when the gyms were going to open. In the meantime he would train with his Pokemon at professor Oaks lab while Delia was at work, he would meet her for lunch, then be there again when she got off of work. Even though they both knew Red was eventually going to have to leave, they were going to make the most of their time together. One morning Red was in the kitchen making them both coffee before they started their day when he heard Delia burst out of the bedroom and run into the bathroom. "Delia are you ok?" His only response was a vomiting noise coming from inside. When he opened the door saw Delia leaning against the wall breathing heavily. "Sounds like your sick, I'll take the day off of training. It looks like you'll need me." Delia shook her head, "I'll be fine. I think it's just food poisoning from the restaurant last night. The food tasted funny and the ... activity this morning probably didn't help." She gave a little smile saying the last part. "Are you sure." Delia nodded. "Ok, I'm going to head out now then." He leaned in to kiss her head, but she then moved suddenly and had her head in the toilet again. Red arrived at professor Oaks lab and began his usual training routine. Red was getting ready to leave and meet Delia for lunch when professor Oak came out. "Red, glad I caught you before you left. Good news, the Sinnoh gyms open for challengers the day after tomorrow." "That's great news professor thanks." With that Red took off to tell Delia the news. He knew he would have to leave her for about a year, but he knew she would be ok, the long distance relationship wasn't new to her after all, and he knew he would come back to her.

He arrived at the bakery just to find out that Delia called in sick. He then went to their apartment where he saw Delia sitting on the couch looking down at something. "Delia, I told you to call if you didn't go to work." Delia didn't answer, she just kept looking down at a white stick in her hands. "Delia? Are you ok? What's that in your hand?" She handed it to him, "What's with the plus signs?" "That's a pregnancy test Red, I had morning sickness this morning." "What does morning sickness have to do with a pregnancy test?" Delia face palmed, "I hope our child isn't as dense as you." "I think your getting ahead of yourself there Delia, you need to be pregnant f..." Red stopped as it hit him. "Your pregnant?" Delia nodded. "Shit. Talk about timing." "What do you mean?" Delia questioned. "I just spoke with professor Oak, the Sinnoh gyms open the day after tomorrow, I'm leaving tomorrow." "No, you can't. You'll be gone for at least a year. I'm going to need you here." "I know, but what am I supposed to do? Give up on my dream of being the World Champion?" "No, just wait. At least till after the baby is born. This is going to be so new I'm going to need your help. You still will have plenty of time to become the youngest World Champion ever." Red shook his head, "I can't wait, I need to keep moving. But I swear I'll be back after Sinnoh. Then the three of us will go so I can challenge the current champion." "Red you'll miss the birth of your child, doesn't that matter to you." Delia cried tears streaming down her face. "Of course it matters, but I'm so close to achieving my dream. I just can't wait." Red walked to the bedroom and grabed his bag and camping gear, then walked to the door. "Don't you dare leave Red. If you walk out on us now, don't you dare ever come back." "I will be back Delia. And when I do I'll be somebody our child can be proud of." With that Red left leaving Delia crying on the floor.

Time skip 1year later

Red was flying on Charizard above pallet town on his way home from winning the Sinnoh league. To say he was nervous was an understatement, he wrote a letter to Delia every day on his journey and called from every town, but got no responses. He landed by the bakery that Delia worked, Charizard knew how worried Red was so he didn't bother begging for pokepuffs and let Red return him. Red slowly walked inside and saw Mr. Forest behind the counter. When he saw Red an angry expression formed on his face, "what are you doing here." "Please Mr Forest I need to see her." "You made your choice, now leave, you've done enough to that poor girl." "Please I'm begging you," Tears were starting to form in Reds eyes, "I know I screwed up, I just want her back." "Funny, you had a chance for a wonderful life. You were going to have a women who wanted to spend the rest of her life with you and your child who would have looked up to you as their hero, both would have loved you unconditionally. Now what do you have, I bunch of trophies, cold metal." "Please..." "get out. Your not welcome here anymore." "But..." "no buts, now get out of here before I kick yours." Red walked out slowly, defeated. He tried Delia's apartment but learned she moved out, he tried her parents house but they just slammed the door in his face. Red was desperate, then an idea came to mind, "come out Lucario." Lucario emerged ready to be of assistance to his trainer. "Do you remember Delia?" Lucario nodded. "I need to find her. Can you look for her aura?" Lucario closed his eyes, when he opened them he took off running, stopping in front of the bakery. "So she was inside." Lucario stopped Red and pointed to the second floor. Red was confused at first, but then remembered that most of the buildings down town had apartments on the second floor. Red then ran around back and up the stairs, then inside. At the end of the hall he saw a door and knocked on it. A few moments later Delia opened it. "Delia." Red said with a look of hope in his eyes. Delia tried to slam the door but Red got his foot in preventing it. "Please Delia, I'm so sorry, I screwed up bad, I know that now." "It's too late, you made your choice, now go live with it." "Please I want to be there for you and our child." "Be there for us? Where were you when my parents disowned me when I told them and refused to put the child up for adoption, where were you when I was giving birth to my child with out a loved one to hold my hand, leaving me in a room with just the Dr and nurses, where were you when I needed you, WHAT HAPPENED TO FOREVER!" Delia screamed the last part. Just then baby Ash started crying, "great, now he's crying because of you." "I have a son?" Red said, tears coming down his face. "No, I have a son, you chose a different life without us. NOW LEAVE!" Delia slammed the door. Red started beating on the door crying, "please, let me see my son. I'm sorry, give me another chance, we can still be a family. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Red kept sobbing the last part as he fell to the floor. Back in Ash's room Delia was holding him as tears poured from her eye's.

Back to present

There wasn't a dry eye by this point, even Ash who was failing to fight back the tears. "Three months later I became the world Champion. I sent the prize money to Delia to help take care of you, but she never cashed the check." Said Red. "I never even opened the envelope, I didn't open any thing you sent. I was so hurt and angry that I just threw them all in the trash." Delia added. "I eventually convinced Gary's Father, Blue to help me by sending me pictures of you. You becoming friends with Gary made it easier for him." Red said as he pulled a photo album out of his bag. "I even have a picture of you on your first day as a trainer with a very angry Pickachu." Red laughed as he said. "After you left I followed your progress as a trainer and was at every one of your matches in all the leagues. And I have to say I was impressed." "I lost all the leagues except Aloha. You won every league you competed in. How could you have been impressed?" Ash asked. "Most of those actually were tougher than when I competed. You just had bad luck. Especially in Kalos, if Alain wasn't competing you would have won. He was on champion level, I don't think Diantha could have beaten him if he challenged her for the title." "Well thanks. But you haven't answered all my questions, like why didn't you try and contact me while I was traveling?" Red sighed, "to be honest I wanted to. But every time I was close I got scared. I was afraid that you would reject me and not want anything to do with me." Ash took in everything that Red said, he wanted to be angry, he wanted to hate him, but he couldn't. It was obvious to Ash Red regretted his mistakes and wanted to be apart of his life, but there was one last question. "Why now? Why after all these years are you choosing now to contact me? I doubt you've gotten over the fear of me rejecting you." Red looked at everyone, all eyes were on him waiting for an answer. "Only a small number of people know this, Goodshow is the only one in the league I've told, it's the reason for my retirement. I'm dying." Everyone was shocked by this, tears started to form in Delia's eyes again. "A year ago I went to see a Dr, and they found a brain tumor. Where it's located it would kill me if they tried to remove it, so they tried a few other procedures, but no luck. Six months ago they told me I had a year at best." Ash couldn't believe what he was hearing, he finally met his father and he was going to forgive him, just to learn that he's dying. "Ash." Said Red, breaking Ash from his thoughts. "I'm not here looking for sympathy. I understand if you can't forgive me for not being there for you, but I wanted you to know what happened and why I wasn't there for you while you were growing up." "Growing up without you wasn't easy, and you're probably right that I probably would have rejected you back then, but now after everything I've been through, I'm willing to give you a chance to be apart of this family if you want it." Red was brought to tears upon hearing this, the one thing he want most of all, Ash's forgiveness.

Per Red's wishes the conversations for the rest of the evening were much happier, mostly Ash asking Red about his early journeys as a trainer before he left Delia. Eventually Serena started yawning, causing Ash to check the time. "Wow it got late fast. We're going to turn in for the night, I've got the first match in the morning." Ash and Serena then said their good nights, and headed inside to go to bed.  "Well I better get going before Charizard falls asleep." Red looked around for his Pokemon, only to find them asleep already with Ash and Serena's Pokemon. "I guess I'm too late, I'll just call a taxi." "Or, you could stay at my house for the night, it's just a short walk away." Delia said with her hope hidden in her tone. "Are you sure? I don't want to impose." "It's fine. Just don't get any ideas, your not sleeping with me in my bed tonight." Delia said sternly. Red smirked, "So there's a chance I could tomorrow night?" Delia bushed, she was flustered and at a loss for words. Red then kissed her cheek, "the couch is fine with me. I can just stay in my hotel room the rest of the nights." They then left together for Delia's house, with Delia knowing she wasn't going to let him stay at the hotel again while he's in Aloha.

Author's notes
I'm very sorry to say this, but I have decided to put this story on hold for now. Reason being I'm having trouble switching between this story and my other The Secret Prince. The ideas are just flowing alot easier for that one right now making me more motivated to work on it. I do want to make this clear, I am NOT abandoning this story, I have full intention of picking it back up after The Secret Prince is completed. Thank you for understanding.