Chapter 29: Are We There Yet?

I wanted to sleep in, but I was told by Anthony that I'd have to wait until the actual present to have that luxury. He'd ended up being the one sent to try to get me out of bed, which I hadn't liked one bit.

"Get out of bed," Anthony repeated for the fifteenth time.

"No."

"You're being ridiculous. Do you want to go home or not?" he chided, trying at the same time to pull the covers off of me.

"Stop doing that!" I shrieked, curling into a ball. "What if I was naked!?"

"Why would you sleep naked?" Anthony asked, backing up quickly. I slept with pajamas because that would be crazy not to at a Pokémon Center (stranger danger), but he didn't have to know that. I peeked from outside the covers and saw that his cheeks were red. Good. He had decency and that would be his downfall. It also made it really tempting to lie and say he needed to leave so I could get dressed and then fall back asleep.

"Fine." I sighed, deciding not to be as evil. All the excitement had woken me up anyway. I sat up. Anthony immediately shielded his eyes with his hands and looked almost ready to duck and cover. I raised my eyebrows. "I'm not naked. Calm down."

He slowly lowered his hands and opened his eye a crack. "You could have said that before."

"I never said I was naked! I said if!"

"You're not going to be my flying buddy," Anthony said curtly, walking towards the door. "Hurry up. We're all waiting."

The door slammed and I sighed. It was going to be a long day.

Going outside and beginning to figure out our "seating arrangement" didn't make me feel any better.

"Why is Daniel riding with Misty?" I whispered to Amanda as soon as I heard the plan.

She shrugged. "Well you weren't here and I vouched for you because I figured you wouldn't want to ride with him since you say he's annoying."

"He is annoying," I said defensively.

"Well, then you shouldn't be mad," Amanda said. "Besides, you'd be comfortable with your dad."

"Yeah, but why are they flying together?" I repeated, careening my head around Fenrir's body to stare at Daniel and Misty, who were chatting animatedly right next to Daniel's Charizard. Fenrir's sleek body wasn't a very good hiding place, especially when he sneezed and brought attention to himself. Daniel stopped laughing at something Misty said as he looked over in our direction and waved.

I gave a weak smile before using Fenrir's wing to shield myself more as I furiously whispered to Amanda, "I don't like this."

Amanda sighed. "Well if you want to make a scene, be my guest."

"No. There's nothing to make a scene about."

"Good." Amanda went back to making sure Fenrir was ready.

"Yeah," I said, then decided to distract myself. "So you're riding with Anthony?"

"Yep," Amanda said. "Fortis is bigger for two people. Brock will have Fenrir to himself. It'd be kind of creepy if he rode with someone, you know?"

Yes. Yes it would. "So, you and Anthony?"

Amanda looked up from petting Fenrir and raised her eyebrows. "What about us?"

"Oh, nothing." I smiled.

Amanda's dirty blonde hair waved in front of her face so I couldn't see her expression as she bent closer to Fenrir. "If you say so."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see my dad wearing an energetic smile. "You ready, partner?"

"Sure." I felt a bit more relieved. Flying with my dad was actually something I really enjoyed. He'd always take me flying ever since I was little on his Charizard. I'd loved it so much. It was just like old times. Literally, except I was the old one, my dad was younger, and my mom wasn't yelling at us to come back home and do dishes and laundry.

Daniel stepped away from Smoky and clapped his hands together. "Alright gang, if all goes well we'll reach Violet City tonight. That's a third of the distance. I think we can do that, right?"

"It doesn't sound too bad. This will be so much nicer than walking," my mom commented enthusiastically.

"I know, right?" Daniel agreed. "So, anyone have anything to say before we take off and can't really hear anyone but the person next to us?"

Yeah. Whose idea was it for you to hang out with my mom all day? I thought. I still hadn't forgotten his first reaction to her when we'd seen her looking for Togepi. He was so gross. Saying my mom was cute.

As Daniel looked to see if anyone had anything to say, his eyes locked with mine. I looked away.

"Alright then, let's get going."

"What about bathroom breaks?" Ash asked suddenly.

"That's the fun part. We don't make any stops." Daniel grinned, then said, "No, seriously, please tell us if you have to go. I don't want anyone to get peed on."

Ash blinked in surprise before grinning back. "Alright then."

I decided not to comment as I mounted Sadie, Ash climbing up behind. I felt Pikachu's head bump into mine gently.

"You ready?" I asked.

"I'm always ready," Ash said determinedly.

My Dragonite extended her wings and rocketed upwards without any more approval necessary. She was faster than she looked. I could hear Ash whooping joyfully behind me and smiled. I loved my dad.

Everyone else joined us in the air and we started flying south-west, which would mostly be a mountainous view since Rock Cave was so close. I don't know who came up with the name for Rock Cave, but they hadn't really stretched out when it came to creativity.

My dad and I began discussing everything about Pokémon and it was the closest I'd felt to him in a long time. With me being on my journey I didn't go visit home very much. I'd see him every once and awhile, but just getting to talk to him one on one like this so intimately, even if it wasn't about intimate subjects, just made me realize how much I missed him and how lucky I was that he was my dad.

After an hour or so, I noticed that he kept staring over at Daniel and Misty, who hadn't stopped talking either.

"Everything ok?" I asked.

"Yeah," my dad answered, gripping me a bit tighter as he adjusted his body. It wasn't fun flying for this long and we had way longer to go, though something told me he wasn't moving around because his butt was sore.

"You sure?" I felt him look over again a few seconds later.

"So why'd Daniel choose to ride with Misty?" Ash asked.

"What?" My grip almost slipped off Sadie.

"Why did Daniel pick Misty to ride with him?" Ash said louder above the wind. I'd heard the first time, thanks for repeating my torture.

"He picked her?" I still had to ask for clarification, just in case.

"Yeah."

It took a lot of willpower not to command Sadie to use Outrage in the direction Daniel was. I decided yet again to distract myself. "Why do you ask?"

I felt Ash sit up in surprise. "I'm still trying to figure out if you're all trustworthy. That's why."

Sure. "So you tell me what you think about him then."

This would be funny considering I knew my dad's opinions about Daniel and, since they were both so similar in their determined, joking manner, they got along swimmingly. Ash began hesitantly, "He seems nice. And he loves Pokemon and food like me, so he doesn't seem like a bad guy at all."

Of course that's all that makes up a person to my dad. "But?"

"But his Charizard just is a real show off and to me that means it can't be that well trained. They only show off when they're not really good, you know," Ash finished.

"I see," I said dryly. It sounded like jealousy to me. "You know, my mom always says I'm in denial."

"Why's that?"

"Because I use excuses for everything instead of saying what I really mean."

"What does that have to do with Charizard?" Ash asked.

"Everything." Wow, facepalm.

"Hey, Emma," Ash said, shaking my shoulder.

"Yeah?" I felt like he was going to say something important, like he had a self-realization about how he'd been denying feelings for my mom. I started freaking out. Would I be messing up the time stream? Would this make their relationship better, or worse? Because I don't think wedding vows counted before marriage for the worse part to count right now. So what was it?

"I have to go to the bathroom."

Hadn't been what I'd expected at all. "Alright, we'll take a break then."

We started descending towards a forest below, the others following us since they wouldn't leave us behind just because my dad's bladder was small.

I love Ash Ketchum. The old version of him where he acted like an actual boy and teased girls and was normal oblivious and not super peppy Dora the Explorer extreme oblivious all the time. Why, Pokemon, why?

Pokemon Question of the Day: What facepalm moment created by Ash is your favorite?

Just keep flying, Readers. We'll get to Celebi eventually.

-Flips