Ash finished his bowl.
Set it down.
Sat in the kitchen for a moment while the restaurant settled into its after-rush quiet — the particular stillness of a place that had been loud for hours and was now catching its breath.
From the dining area, he could hear Misty resetting tables. May's voice, calm and efficient, going through the day's receipts. Dawn stacking chairs with the rhythm of someone who'd done it so many times it required no thought.
His mother appeared at the kitchen pass and ruffled his hair on her way past.
"Good work," she said again. Warm. Like she meant it.
'I missed this,' he thought. 'I didn't know how much until right now.'
He was still sitting with that thought when the front door opened.
"Welcome to Pallet Hou— oh, Lina! It's you!"
Delia's voice shifted from professional to genuinely pleased in the space of two words.
Ash turned.
Standing in the doorway was a young woman with pink hair tucked neatly under a nurse's cap, wearing the crisp white uniform of a Pokémon Centre nurse. She had a calm, gentle presence — the kind that made a room feel slightly more settled just by existing in it.
She was carrying a Pokémon carrier in one hand, swaying gently.
"Good morning, Mother-in-law," she said, with a warm smile. "I'm returning the healed Pokémon."
The reaction from the girls was immediate.
"Lina!" Serena appeared from the kitchen, expression genuinely lighting up. "How are you? It feels like we haven't seen you properly in days."
"My Piplup!" Dawn abandoned the chairs entirely and crossed the room in four quick strides. "Is she okay? Is she back to normal? Tell me she stopped being dramatic about the wing—"
"She is perfectly fine," Lina said, laughing softly. "And yes, still dramatic. That hasn't changed."
"How's Chansey holding up?" May called from across the room. "She looked exhausted last time I was at the Centre."
"Much better. She just needed rest." Lina set the carrier down and began carefully unlatching it. "I brought everyone's Pokémon. They're all recovered."
The girls gathered around her naturally — easy and warm, the way people move around someone they're genuinely comfortable with. They spoke over each other in the good-natured way of people who'd known each other long enough not to need turns. Lina answered everyone without losing the thread, distributing Pokémon and reassurances in equal measure.
Ash watched from the kitchen doorway.
'She's one of them,' he thought. The realisation arrived quietly. Not a shock — he'd already processed enough shocks for one morning — just a quiet addition to the count. 'A Nurse Joy. Lina. That's six.'
He was still counting when something else landed.
Something he should have noticed earlier but hadn't because he'd been too busy being dead and eight years old and panicking about Pikachu.
Dawn was holding Piplup now. The little penguin Pokémon was making indignant noises about something and Dawn was making equally indignant noises back, which was their version of affection.
May had a Torchic on her shoulder, settled there like it lived there. Because it did.
Misty had a Poliwag waddling beside her foot.
Serena's Fennekin had appeared from somewhere and was sitting precisely beside her, as composed as its trainer.
Lina's Chansey was visible through the Pokémon Centre bag she'd set by the door.
Green, at home, had Bulbasaur and Eevee.
Ash looked at himself.
Then looked around the room again.
'I am,' he thought slowly, 'the only person here without a Pokémon.'
The thought landed with the particular weight of something that should have been obvious.
He was in a world full of Pokémon. He was surrounded by people who each had their own partners — Pokémon that had been with them for years, that knew them, that were part of their daily lives.
And he had nothing.
In his previous life, Pikachu had been everything. The partner he'd built ten years around. The reason half of what he'd accomplished had been possible at all.
And Pikachu wasn't his yet. Wasn't even close.
'I can't wait,' he thought. The certainty of it was immediate and absolute. 'I can't just sit here for years with no Pokémon while everyone else has theirs. That's not— I won't do it. I need a partner. Now.'
He thought about Professor Oak.
The lab was ten minutes up the road. Oak had Pokémon — he always had Pokémon, that was the entire point of the man. And in this timeline, thanks to the engagements, Oak was effectively family.
'Gramps,' Ash thought, and a familiar, slightly mischievous feeling settled over him. 'Surely Gramps will help out his grandson-in-law.'
He pushed off from the doorframe.
"Mom!" he called, already moving toward the front door. "I'm going to Grandpa Oak's lab!"
He had the door open before the sentence finished.
"Ash, you're still in your work uniform—!" Delia started.
He was already outside.
The door swung shut behind him.
⁕ ⁕ ⁕
Inside the restaurant, there was a brief silence.
Delia looked at the door.
Then at the girls.
Then at May, specifically, with the expression of a woman who has identified the most capable person in the room and is about to deploy her.
"He forgot his clothes," Delia said.
May was already reaching for her jacket. "I know."
"He's going to walk into Professor Oak's lab in a waiter uniform."
"I know." May had her jacket on. She was moving toward the door. "I'll catch him."
"Take his clothes."
"Already getting them." She ducked into the changing room, came out with Ash's folded regular clothes under one arm. "Back in twenty minutes."
"Thank you, dear."
May was out the door.
Misty watched her go with the expression of someone who finds this moderately funny and is choosing not to show it.
"He's going to be like this forever, isn't he," she said. Not a question.
"Absolutely," Dawn said pleasantly, and went back to stacking chairs.
Lina smiled to herself and began packing up her carrier.
"I should get back," she said. "Chansey can't manage the afternoon intake alone."
"Go," Serena said warmly. "We're fine here. Thank you for bringing everyone's Pokémon."
Lina waved and slipped out the door with the quiet efficiency of someone always slightly behind schedule and entirely at peace with it.
The restaurant settled back into its post-rush calm.
Misty picked up her menus.
Somewhere down the road, Ash was sprinting toward Professor Oak's lab in a waiter uniform with flour on the hem, fully convinced this was a reasonable plan.
Some things, apparently, never changed.