Delia looked at Ash completely dazed. Out of all the things that could have been wrong this was the last thing she expected. She sat there for a while just thinking, but soon she started to smile.

"Ashy this is great!" She screeched. She grabbed him by the cheeks and started to shake his head about violently. "My little boy is in love!"

"MOOOOOM!" Ash exclaimed in embarrassment. "This isn't helping."

"Ohhhh I'm sorry Ashy. Why are you so upset about this? Isn't this a good thing?"

"No it's a great thing. The only problem is that it took me 13 years to realize it." He started to get mad again and clenched his fists, ready to punch another hole in the wall. His mother stopped him, however, by giving him a massage, instantly bringing him to peace.

"Calm down Ashy. The important thing is that you did figure it out am I right?"

"I guess."

"I thought so. I usually am when it comes to these things." She smirked at her son. "Why don't you tell her?"

"Please. If she has ever felt anything toward me at all, which I doubt highly..." Delia giggles to herself, realizing how wrong Ash was.

"What's so funny?" Ash asked, semi-furious about being interrupted.

"Nothing Ashy. Please continue." She replied after finishing her giggle session.

"Anyways. If she has ever felt that way about me then that opportunity would have already presented itself and gone a long time ago seeing as how it took my dense-self a decade to realize my feelings." Ash just looked at the ground as he said this. Delia didn't have to look at his eyes to see that her son was hurting. She couldn't help but cry at the sight of her son's broken heart.

"Mom please don't cry." Ash wiped the tears off his mother's face and hugged her.

"Alright I'm sorry, but you have to promise me something."

"Anything Mom."

"You have to tell Misty how you feel." Ash instantly pulled away from the hug when she said this.

"WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY? WHAT GOOD WOULD THAT DO?" Ash yelled.

"First of all, inside voice." Delia slapped him across the back of the head playfully. "And second of all, it would do a lot of good."

"How?" Ash asked.

"Well for starters you would finally figure out how she really feels about you, because no matter how much you try to convince yourself you will never truly know unless you ask."

"What if she says no and that ruins our friendship. I just don't think I would be capable of moving on from losing her."

"Well who said you would. Life is all about gambling and taking risks. If you never take risks then you will never gain anything in return." Delia explained. "Plus why would you want to be just friends with her when you could be so much more."

Ash looked at his mom with a better understanding of what he must do, but he still wasn't sure.

"Look I can't promise you I'll ask her..." Ash could see her face tense up when he started his sentence. "BUT... I will think about."

Delia starred at him for a little while before a smile appeared on her face once again.

"I can work with that." She responded. "Well I better leave you to it. I love you so much Ashy." Delia gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you too mom." Ash gave her a hug.

She started to make her way out the room until she stopped right in the doorway. A little smirk formed on her face.

"Plus You never know. Misty may be the one to give me some Grand-Babies."

"MOOOOOOM!" Ash yelled. He got up and started to push her out of the room.

"What? I'm 40 years old! It's about time you start worrying about the birds and the bees and give me some mini-Ketchum's that I can give all the love a Grandmother can give."

"Get out!" Ash was still trying to push her through the doorway.

"Ohh alright fine. Goodnight Ashy, I love you." She kissed him on the cheek one last time before going to bed

"Goodnight Mom, love you too."

Delia started to make her way to her bedroom before she whipped back around and caught the door before Ash could shut it. He opened it back up so she could say what she needed to.

"Yes Mom?" Ash was clearly getting annoyed now. Delia loved it.

"Just wanted to remind you to change your underwear before you go to bed. You know how I..."

"Wham!" Ash slammed the door shut before she could finish what she was saying. She just giggled to herself before retiring to her room and calling it a night.

1 Week Later

Ash's POV:

Whether or not I had promised my mom to think about, telling Misty how I really feel has been on my mind constantly since that night.

'What should I do.' I questioned myself in silence as I laid in my bed.

It was 4 in the afternoon and I have been laying here with Pikachu since I woke up this morning. I hadn't had the time, nor the patience to worry about it until now.

As I was laying in bed, just when I was about to answer the question from before, my cellphone rang.

"Can't I ever catch a break? I huffed as I answered the phone.

"Hello?" I asked unenthusiastically.

"Hey man, it's Brock. How have you been?"

"Ohh hey Brocko. Nothing much I've just been sitting here thinking. What about you?"

"Same-old, same-old. Hey I have something to ask you." This intrigued me.

"Go ahead. Shoot."

"Well the gang and I are having a bachelor party before the wedding and I was wondering if the best man would be their."

"For sure. When is it?" I asked excitedly.

"It's at 10 tonight. We'll be by to pick you up at around 9."

"Alright sounds like a plan. Who all is going to be there?"

"Just a few people. It's not going to be a big party. We're just going to a bar for some drinks. Despite how much I've changed, the wife doesn't even trust me to go to a Pokémon Center alone, more or less a strip club." This made us both laugh.

"That sounds like fun. I'll see you all then."

"Alright see you then. Bye Ash."

"Bye Brock." And with that I hung up the phone and continued with my thoughts, completely oblivious to how fast time was going by.

2 Hours Later

Normal POV:

"HONK!" A car horn went off outside, signaling Ash that it was time to go.

"Alright Pikachu, ill be back later on tonight. You be good for Mom okay." Ash rubbed Pikachu softly.

"Chaaa!" Pikachu cooed.

Ash rushed downstairs and bolted for the front door. However, he was stopped just shy of it by his mom.

"Where are you going sweety?" Delia asked as she made her way to the kitchen to start dinner.

"Ohh me and the boys are headed to a bar in town for Brock's bachelor party."

"Alright well you all have fun. Try not to get to drunk Ash."

"I won't Mom. I love you and I'll talk to you when I get back."

"I love you too." And with that Ash made his way out the front door and got into the car for the long night ahead of him.

1 Hour Later:

They where just pulling up into the parking lot when Ash noticed the name of the bar they where at. It was called the Drunken Slowbro and it was the most expensive bar and grill in Pewter.

"Now if you want to eat till you can't stand and drink until your throwing up in the bathroom stalls after just your first couple of shots then your at the right place." Brock chuckled as he elbowed Ash in he side.

"Come on, what are we waiting for guys?" Gary asked as he walked ahead of the pack. "Let's get absolutely sh*tfaced!" He then ran to the front entrance with Ash, Brock, Tracey, and a couple of Brock's other friends close behind.

After a few hours, the only people left who weren't completely hammered where Brock and Ash. Brock was sitting at the booth being entertained by a drunk conversation between Gary and Tracey over which Golden Girl was hotter when he noticed Ash was at the bar alone. Brock walked up to him and sat down next to him.

"Hey. You drunk?" Brock asked.

"Not yet. You?" Ash asked.

"Nah. Probably won't be period."

"Why though? If I recall, this is your bachelor party."

"I've never liked to get drunk Ash. Plus someone has to drive us home." This kinda insulted Ash.

"I can drive."

"Do you have a license?" Brock asked

"No, but..."

"Then your not driving." Brock stated plainly. He then thought it was a good time to get to why he came up here in the first place.

"Hey why are you up here by yourself? Is something wrong." Brock placed his hand on Ash's back. "You know I'll always be here for you."

"Yeah I know and I appreciate that. I just have a lot of sh*t on my plate right now."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really." There was nothing but silence between them for a while. Brock had found out that staying quite was a good way to get Ash to talk. He couldn't stand the silence for long.

"Well there is something." Ash began. Brock smirked at how well he knew his best friend. "I have been thinking about it for a while, but I can't come to a conclusion. I want to tell her, but something inside me is telling me that I can't." Brock already knew who he was talking about, but he thought he would entertain Ash.8

"What is it." Brock asked.

"I... uhhh... I t-think I'm in l-love with Misty." Ash looked down at his plate of shrimp and sat there for a while before Brock finally spoke up.

"I know."

"You know! What do you mean you know?" Ash exclaimed. He started to blush.

"Dude it was obvious. The flirting and the blushing every time you looked at each other were dead give aways. Hell, there were so many fights between you two and the sexual tension was so great that if you two were to get married I don't think you two would ever fight. Not to mention you two would have enough kids to fill a school bus." This comment made Ash turn beat red and start to get up. Brock grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back into his seat.

"Hey I was just joking." Brock sighed. "The point is that I've know for a long time that there was something between you two and if there is anything I can help you with then just say the word." Ash looked at Brock and smiled at him.

"Thank you Brock."

"Don't mention it buddy. Now I think I already know what this is about and I think you should tell her."

Ash was shocked at how Brock knew and it made him wonder. 'Was it really this obvious the entire time?' Ash thought. 'Man I really am dense.'

"How did you..." He was interrupted by Brock.

"Just call it a gut feeling." That both started to laugh. After a few seconds of laughter, ash returned to his blank expression and got serious again.

"What if it ruins our friendship Brock. I don't think I could..." He was interrupted again by, this time, a very annoyed Brock.

"Really Ash? Do you not know Misty? She would never let something like that ruin her friendship with you. You guys' friendship has been strained by much worse than that and it's survived hasn't it?" Brock glared at Ash when he said this. Ash didn't think it was humanly possible seeing as how Brock had his eyes almost completely closed all the time, but he proved Ash wrong.

"Yes it has." Ash said, kind of frightened of Brock at the moment.

"Your exactly right. So if I was the last bit of confirmation you needed to make a legitimate decision then you have my answer. The real question is what are you going to do about it?" There was silence between the two for a good 30 seconds. Brock looked over and noticed Ash had started to cry. Ash wiped away the few tears that had escaped and looked at Brock smiling.

"Thank you Brocko. I can't tell you enough."

"Don't mention it buddy." They then hugged each other. "Now how about we get out of here. We clearly don't have any plan to get drunk so let's drop these guys off and then I'll take you home."

"Sounds like a plan." They then gathered up their drunk friends and made their way to the car.

"Shotgun!" A drunk Gary yelled before dropping to his knees and throwing up in the middle of he parking lot.

"At least it its not my car." Brock whispered into Ash's ear. They both laughed and then left for the long drive home.

And that's chapter 9. Like always, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll talk to y'all in the next one. Peace!