Chapter 0 - off days

“Are you out here for training?” the young man asks, a friendly smile on his face.

Bea had intended to do her training alone, with minimal interruption, as she always does. Running into someone else out here was bad enough, but now it turns out that he’s the chatty sort too. He looks a little familiar, in a way that she is not able to place, and she simply nods.

“You’re a gym leader around here, aren’t you?” he asks. “My name’s Ash, by the way!”

The name is familiar too, but rather than thinking on it, she replies, “Yes, I am. My name is Bea.”

“That’s right! Well, I’ll try not to get in your way too much, but if you need a partner for anything, just come find me cos I’ll be around!” he says, and just like that, he is charging off to do his own thing. It is better that way, she knows, but she would rather him not be around at all. Working in close proximity to someone else can throw her off balance and mess with her focus, and she needs to be at the top of her game.

She could leave and find another area to do her training in, but this particular place has ideal conditions for the sort of work she is doing right now. The Wild Area is a big place, but when it comes to specific training, one has to be careful about where they choose to set up. Leaving just because she is worried about Ash distracting her is like admitting defeat, and Bea is not the sort to admit defeat easily. She will just have to endure, and prove to herself that she can handle any sort of distraction.

Out here, there is no limit to how many Pokemon she can bring with her, and she has a wide assortment to train with her on this trip. Her gym team has to stay in top form, of course, but there is the team that she uses in exhibition matches, the one that she is cultivating for the next championship tournament. Being a gym leader guarantees her a chance to challenge the champion every year, should she make it through the tournament, and Bea will never stop pushing herself to reach that point.

Fighting types have always been her specialty, due to her own dedication to martial arts, and she intends to win with them. She intends to become strong enough that type advantages mean nothing, and that means tireless training, and multiple team combinations, capitalizing on all of the strengths that fighting Pokemon have to offer.

As she works with her team, her attention is often drawn away by the young man training not far away. He has a wide variety of Pokemon, even some not found in this region, but that makes sense. From how he’d spoken to her before, he made it clear that he wasn’t yet familiar with Galar, and his team suggests someone who has done a lot of traveling.

Only now does Bea finally realize where she knows his name from. Though the Pokemon leagues of other regions pale in comparison to the popularity it has in Galar, most enthusiasts still try to keep up with the other leagues, and Bea is no exception. This Ash is none other than Ash Ketchum, best known for his recent victory in the Alola region, who must have made his decision to come to Galar not long after.

Though she had initially thought him annoying for approaching her out of nowhere, Bea is a bit more curious about him. His style of battling is interesting, and knowing that she is training near someone as accomplished as he is makes her want to observe him more, though she would ordinarily want to keep her distance. She will keep her distance either way, because she doubts he would leave her alone if he noticed her keeping an eye on him.

So Bea does what she can to keep to herself, though she can’t stop her eyes from wandering in his direction from time to time, and as she watches him, she wonders if he is really all that great after all. When it comes to training, she works nonstop, taking breaks only when it is absolutely necessary, and even then, she sees breaks as an inconvenience. Ash, on the other hand, seems to treat it like it’s for fun, enjoying every minute of his rough training, then breaking for a long time, relaxing as if he has all the time in the world.

A few days go by, with the two barely interacting, but Bea can’t stop noticing him, growing more and more frustrated with his style. More so than that, she notices that he is improving , and rather rapidly, at that rate. As much as she hates to admit it, she thinks he might be doing better than her already. It makes no sense, for her to put in more effort while Ash sees more results, and she has no idea how he is pulling that off.

Her frustration grows until it reaches the point that she is no longer getting as much done as she would like to, because she keeps watching him, trying to figure out the secret to his success. Everything he does appears so average to her that she can’t make sense of it, no matter how much she watches. Her pride demands that she not ask him a thing, but if he were to defeat her easily because of his secret advantage, then her pride would take a much greater hit.

Bea debates with herself for a while before she finally decides to bite the bullet and speak to Ash directly. He had said that she could approach him any time, so perhaps training with him will help to answer her questions, and reassure her that she would be able to beat him, if it came down to it.

“Excuse me,” she says, coming up to him one day when he is taking a break. She at least decides not to be rude enough to interrupt his training, even if she is interrupting her own day of training, just to talk to him. “I had a question for you.”

“Oh, hey, Bea!” he says with a bright grin. She is not used to people having such a bright reaction around her, but then, that is probably just how Ash is about things. Even so, it nearly catches her off guard. “Go ahead, hit me with it!”

“I’ve been watching you train,” she says, already feeling ashamed to even admit it. “I’m not sure if you’ve observed me at all, but I do think I have noticed a difference in our progress. I just want to know what causes that difference.”

“Uh, sure, we can talk about that,” Ash says, seeming a bit perplexed at the sudden topic. Everything about him seems so casual in comparison to her, and she has no idea how he manages to improve at such a rate that she is not sure if she would be able to comfortably go toe to toe with him. She takes everything that she does seriously, because that is what she was raised to do, and now here comes this stranger, showing her up at every turn, while not even realizing that he is doing it, because he’s so carefree!

“Alright, so what did you want to start with?” asks Ash. “We could have a battle, if that would be easier.” Though he seems excited at the prospect of battling her, she is not so sure that she wants to take that risk right now, when she still does not know the secret to his strength, or if he is even as strong as he appears.

Bea hates the feeling of uncertainty, as she is used to going headlong into battles, but right now, she does not want her pride to take too many hits. She shakes her head and says, “A discussion is all I need right now.”

“Oh, alright, then let’s discuss it. I actually have watched you train a little bit,” he admits, with a sheepish smile. “I couldn’t help it, since you’re a gym leader and stuff. It was hard not to get interested, you know? I feel better now that I know you were doing the same thing to me.”

Bea feels her face heat up, and looks off to the side, scowling. “Yes, well. Do you have anything you noticed?”

“You’re incredibly strong, seriously! Your style is amazing, and you seem really in sync with your team. I don’t think anyone would have an easy time in a battle with you,” he says, and she feels her pride begin to recover. Of course, everything he says is true, and even if her confidence has been shaken a bit recently, she knows all of that about herself.

When she nods, he continues, “But…”

“But?” she asks, her mood immediately swinging in the opposite direction. After paying her that many compliments, she did not expect him to follow it up with a critique.

“I just think you train too hard,” Ash replies. “You came over here today, and we’re all taking it easy out here. Yesterday, we worked really hard, so I think everyone deserves a day to rest up and recover.”

“Don’t you think that’s just wasting time?” she retorts. “You’re losing entire days to rest, when you could just take a break every few hours or something. Like I do.”

“But even when you take a break to eat, it doesn’t last very long, and that isn’t that effective,” he says, as if it should be obvious. “It can be different for every Pokemon, but I’ve figured out that the majority of my team works best with long breaks in between periods of hard training. Every other day seems to do the trick with the ones I have with me now, so I think it’s pretty effective!”

Bea listens, hardly believing what she is hearing. Is he seriously suggesting to her that getting more work done is the problem? How on earth could she improve at a better rate by doing less ? That goes against everything that she was raised to think and trained to do, and none of it makes a bit of sense to her. In fact, it is entirely infuriating to hear him say something like that, and to sound like such an expert on the subject, when he is most definitely wrong.

Except…

Well, she has to admit that he does seem to be having results. Unless he has some other secret that he is not telling her, that she is not able to pick up just by watching him, then maybe he really does have more results from his method, no matter how unbelievable that may sound to someone like her. As much as she hates to admit it, Ash has been doing well, and he might actually be an expert on it, and know more than she does. If she were to try his method, would things be different for her?

“I find that hard to believe,” she finally, and Ash laughs.

“Yeah, I thought you might say something like that. I can tell that you work really hard, and that’s great! But I think you should at least try what I do, and see if maybe resting up more might not be what you need.”

“And who says I need anything?” she replies, causing him to laugh again.

“I just figured since you were coming to ask me, it’s cos you’ve gotten stuck. You must have noticed that I was doing better, since you said we had a difference in progress, right?” He may not intend to come across as smug, but that is definitely the feeling she’s getting from him, which only serves to frustrate her more.

He has her though, because that is exactly the purpose behind her visit. Scowling, Bea has no argument, and simply says, “Alright, if you insist, then I will give your training method a try.”

“Just take the rest of the day off,” he suggests, “since you already spent some time coming to talk to me. If you give your body a chance to rest and breathe, then tomorrow you’ll have even more energy and be able to get a lot done. Then take the next day off, and repeat. Give it a try for a little while, maybe a week or so, and then you can decide which way you like better.”

Bea accepts his suggestion, no matter how much it may pain her to do so, and resolves to take the rest of the day off as a result. She does not look forward to wasting so much time, and finds it hard to believe that that will really improve her performance all that much. However, if she is right, then she might be able to surpass him with even more hard work, and his lax schedule might then catch up with him, causing him to learn his lesson the hard way.

She decides that no real harm can come of her trying it out either way, though she is not sure how to pass the time now. Her Pokemon seem confused that she is letting them roam free, to rest or play or do whatever they may want to do, but soon begin enjoying themselves, while she sits back, and wonders what she should do. After getting a good night’s rest, she is not tired, and has not done anything to exhaust herself, so napping is out of the question, especially if she wants to be able to sleep tonight so that she can work hard tomorrow.

However, she does not have anything to entertain herself with. She packs lightly for her training trips, and plans for no leisure time, so leisure items are left behind. With nothing at all to do, she is soon frustrated by it all, and wishes that she could get back to training. Her body is not used to being idle, and she can feel a familiar itch, a desire to get to work and push her body to the limit. She is not nearly sore enough for it to be nearing the afternoon already, and it all feels so wrong to her that she can’t begin to understand why Ash would ever think it was a good idea.

But this is what she agreed to do, and in a way, it is like its own challenge. If she were to give in and start training anyway, then that would, in essence, be the same as admitting defeat. The best way to win at this would be to suffer through it, prove that she can do things his way, and then go back to her own methods and become even stronger through them, until she could be confident that she would easily be able to overpower Ash in battle.

Having a goal clear in her mind makes it even harder to stay still, her impatience getting the better of her as she tries to fight her impulse to train. With a goal, she wants to work to achieve it right away, so it is hard to accept that it is something she has no choice but to wait on. She is so used to doing things the hardest way possible that doing things the easy way turns out to be one of the greatest challenges that she has ever faced.

No matter what she does, she can’t allow herself to give in. Even though Ash is likely having his own fun, lazing about, she can’t help but feel as though he is watching her, judging her and scrutinizing her every move, and she has a point to prove to him. She can do this, no problem, and once she has done it, she can show Ash that he was wrong, and that his improvement was only a fluke.

Really, though, Ash is not a bad person, and she holds no real resentment towards him. Bea is just the sort who works better with rivals to fight against, and he is just competitive enough and just talented enough to stir that up in her. He makes for a great rival, and therefore, she is honestly a little bit fond of him already, though she is not sure how far that can go. She does not have a lot of friends, due to her busy schedule and difficulty expressing herself, so she is not sure if she and Ash will actually have that much time to grow close, especially once she gets back to training as hard as she actually wants to.

Maybe she should take her time off to get to know him better. If they are both relaxing at the same time, then it will not get in the way of either of their training, and then maybe she could leave this whole experience with a new friend and rival, to keep in touch with and keep herself motivated with. The idea is so appealing to Bea that it honestly surprises her, and she wonders why Ash has had such an effect on her already.

Really, she does not often take this much time in her own thoughts. Forced relaxation gives her time to overthink things, and start to consider things that she ordinarily would not. Such as the fact that Ash is also rather attractive, but once that thought occurs to her, she blushes and pushes it out of her mind, scolding herself for even thinking such a thing right now. It is completely out of character for her, and only happened because she is losing her mind due to inactivity.

Once she can train tomorrow, she can work that right out of her system and forget it entirely, though she does still hope that she and Ash can at least become friends before this is all said and done.

~X~

Though the wait drives her absolutely insane, and though she struggles to fall asleep that night, still itching to work out and having done nothing to wear herself out like she is used to, she eventually falls asleep, and when she wakes up the next morning, bright and early, she is ready to get down to work. Bea is up before Ash is, and gets straight to it, ready to push her body and her team to the limits, after a good day of rest.

Soon enough, he is up as well, and she can hear him training in the distance, but it does not serve as much of a distraction anymore, when she is so immersed in doing what she loves and what she has missed doing. The best, or maybe worst, part about it all is that she feels so much better than she normally does. That is good because it is good for her productivity and training, but also bad, because she has to wonder if that is enough of a sign that Ash was actually right about everything, and that she might actually benefit from taking the day off.

She hates to admit it, but she does feel better, and much more productive, after taking the time to rest, and she can see the difference in all of her Pokemon, who seem happy and energetic after having a chance to cool off. Maybe Ash really was right, and maybe this is what she has been missing, even if it goes against everything that she has been taught. Whatever the case, she knows that she can’t determine that after just one day, and will keep it up for the remaining week, just to see if the difference remains the same, or if today is just a lucky day and a fluke.

The only problem with that is she is not sure how she is supposed to keep herself busy for yet another slow and boring day of doing absolutely no work. To her, trying to keep still is much harder than any sort of training could ever be, and she tries not to think about it now, because if she spends the day dreading what is to come, she will not get to enjoy her training while it lasts, and might end up distracting herself, which will only lead to more wasted time.

Not being idle means that she does not have to spend any time dwelling on Ash, at least, and she is grateful for that. When she can ignore him training in the distance, she can ignore the strange feelings she has, and can once again banish the idea that he might be attractive to her. She is definitely not used to feeling like that, and does not have much experience with anything outside of her immediate sphere, so getting a crush on the other trainer seems completely out of the question for her.

However, by the time night falls and she has to get ready for bed again, she is unable to stop herself from thinking about him. She wonders if he had a good day training today, and wonders what he will be doing tomorrow to rest, and then wonders how she is going to kill time all day while she rests, and how she is going to keep her mind off of Ash. He makes her feel so strange, and despite her general lack of experience, she is not so stupid that she does not understand what those feelings mean for her. She would just rather not face them, but the more time she spends idle, the harder it will be to resist.

Bea falls asleep eventually, because she has exhausted herself so much that even her wandering mind can’t fight it, but even as she does, she is still thinking about Ash, and wondering if she should go and visit him tomorrow, even though she knows that she probably shouldn’t, because she knows what will happen if she does.

~X~

The next morning, she tries to keep herself busy, and tries to keep her mind occupied while she watches over her relaxing team. She can’t do anything physically, can’t do the usual things that would help her not waste all of her focus on the man she has struggled to keep off her mind, and nothing seems to work at all. Bea is not built for simply relaxing and doing nothing, and if she can’t do anything about her training, then she has to do something , about anything else just as long as she is no longer idle.

Approaching Ash to properly deal with her strange attraction to him is certainly one choice, but a choice that she had hoped to be able to avoid. So why, then, does she find herself cracking so early in the day? She knows that her team will be just fine on their own, so she tells her Pokemon to enjoy resting and playing, and that she will be back soon enough, and with that, she heads over to Ash’s camp, her desire to do something overwhelming her need to keep away from him, before things escalate beyond her control.

“Hey, Bea!” he calls out, when he sees her approaching. “How did the past couple days go?”

“Very well,” she admits, deciding not to bother with lying to him about things. “But waiting it out for that long is very frustrating. How do you kill the time?”

“I just sort of do,” he replies with a shrug. “I guess I’m not like you, cos I kinda look forward to being able to rest. Training is fun too, but to me, they’re both fun.”

The answer is a simple one, and exactly what she would expect from him after knowing him for this short time. She scowls without meaning to, not sure what she should do from here, though she knows that she is not going to leave here with just a conversation. Trying again, she says, “I’m just trying to find something to help keep me busy, before I lose my mind to boredom.”

“Well, you’re more than welcome to hang out here with me,” Ash replies with a grin, still not getting it. Truth be told, Bea hardly gets it herself. She never would have imagined that her boredom would push her to pursue something like this with anyone, let alone someone she barely knows, let alone someone like Ash . In fact, she has no idea what she’s doing here, or why she’s thinking along those lines right now.

It wasn’t her intention when she started out to come talk to him, but now that they are so close…

Bea has no idea what she is doing. She has never been very good at things like this, and never expected things to go this far, this quickly. But now that she is here, she can’t bring herself to back down or change her mind on it, and that is why she leans forward, her lips brushing against Ash’s. It is not a full kiss, but it is enough to cause him to stiffen, and she pulls back quickly, as if surprised by her own actions, as surprised as he is.

“What was...that all about?” he asks, once he has gotten over his surprise enough to speak.

“I...am not exactly sure myself,” she replies, and it is half-true. Though she understands what she is after, she barely understands why she is, and has no idea why she feels the need to act on those sudden and impulsive urges.

“Did you do that because…” But he trails off, not finishing the question, and she wonders if Ash is actually that dense, or if he is just taking his time to figure things out. Whatever the case, she knows that she can’t continue to rely on herself to get things done, and if he does not pick up on her hints and move things along soon, she is going to lose her nerve and back out.

Bea can hardly stop her hands from trembling as she moves a bit closer to Ash, giving him a look that she hopes says everything. She watches his face soften, the confusion melting into something else as he says, “Well, that’s definitely one way to kill time, I’ll give you that.”

Though Ash may seem dense enough for it to all fly over his head, he seems to be picking up on it now, and she wonders how much experience he has, if he is used to being approached like this. Bea grows a little nervous thinking about that, wondering how she could hope to stand up to the women that he has been with before. She has never concerned herself with such things before, so she won’t have the experience needed to impress him, and she has focused so much on training that she doubts her body is the sort that he would desire.

As he pulls her into another kiss, she wonders what she will do if he is disappointed with her, if he goes as far as to reject her later on. She has to maintain her pride to the end, she knows, and she would never let someone like him get her down, but even so, having made it this far, she can’t deny that a rejection would hurt. When he pulls out of the kiss, and begins tugging at the bottom of her shirt, she decides to speak up.

“You might not like what you see,” she says, trying to sound casual about it, as if it is a normal thing for someone to say. “I’ve dedicated my life to training my body, so I…”

“You’re muscular,” he replies, “nothing wrong with that. I like all bodies, you know! Muscular girls are great, it’s like…” He trails off, trying to think of an example. “You like fighting types, right? It’s probably just like cuddling with one of your Pokemon!”

It would sound downright idiotic, and perhaps even forced, from anyone else, but Ash is so earnest about it that Bea feels more touched than anything else, and can’t bring herself to laugh at him. Instead, she decides to allow him to continue undressing her, not sure if she should try and undress him or not. By the time he has her down to her underwear, he seems to remember how out in the open they are, and the two retreat to his tent, where they can have at least a little bit of privacy.

Her hands are uncertain as she helps him strip down, and she tries to regain her confidence as she does it. There has never been a challenge that she’s backed down from before, and that is definitely not going to start now. Bea faces this just how she would any challenge, and when they are both naked, she lets Ash pull her into another kiss, not allowing herself to overthink things anymore.

His hand reaches between her legs while he kisses her, and she squirms under his touch, surprised by how easily he can make her respond to it. She moans into the kiss as he begins to finger her, quickly overwhelming her with his touch, and leaving no doubt in her mind that he has the kind of experience to know what he’s doing with her. Perhaps it’s best to just let him take charge from here on out, so that she can learn from his experience.

It seems like Ash has taught her a lot of things in the short time that they’ve known each other.

When he breaks the kiss, giving her a chance to catch her breath, he kisses down her neck and shoulder, nibbling a bit as he goes and leaving Bea gasping out and moaning for him. It would not be difficult for him to completely overwhelm her with sensation, and she would not mind that in the slightest. It is rare that she ever allows herself to feel so good, but with Ash, she has no choice but to feel good.

As he moves his mouth down, his lips soon find one of her breasts, and he presses them to her nipple. Bea is quickly overwhelmed by the new stimulation, and as Ash sucks gently at her nipple, she is unable to think at all, squirming and whimpering, so pathetic that she can hardly believe that this is her. All she can do is let him do what he will, giving herself over to the pleasure immediately.

As he fingers her and teases at her nipple, she finds herself growing so aroused that she is not sure how she is supposed to handle it, desperate for more, and desperate for him. Ash definitely seems to know just how to drive her wild, and without any prior experience with feeling this good, Bea has no idea how to handle herself, other than letting it all wash over her, and allowing herself these brief moments of weakness.

It is hard to even think of it as weakness right now, and maybe not everything has to be about strength and victory anyway. Maybe she can let Ash have this power over her, just the same as she can admit that he may have been right about his training method being better than hers. She will have her victory against him someday either way, so there is nothing wrong with allowing him to win every now and again.

Not to mention, she can hardly think of this as any sort of loss when she feels this amazing. Her need for him continues to grow, until he pulls back his lips and looks up at her, murmuring, “You wanna do more?” Bea can only nod in response, not trusting her voice to remain steady if she speaks.

“Alright,” Ash replies with a grin, and he moves to adjust their position. As he does, Bea takes the time to take in his body, no longer too shy to really look at him. Truth be told, she is very impressed by his body, and surprised by how fit he is, though she probably shouldn’t be. He trains very hard, she knows  that much, and has spent most of his life traveling.

Just the same as her, he has pubic hair, and somehow, she is pleased to see that he is not vain enough to see any reason to wax it off. Such things have always seemed unnecessary to Bea, and though she had not been thinking about it or worrying about it in the moment, she is also glad that he does not seem the type to think that all women should be completely clean shaven.

But then he is properly on top of her, and she has no room to think about these observations, as she realizes that he is finally going to do it, and that everything they have done so far has only been to lead up to this. Already, he has overwhelmed her so much with pleasure that she is not sure how to imagine what comes next, but she decides to just relax and let it happen. Of course, she is also a bit nervous for it, but she at least knows that relaxing is much better for her than letting herself grow tense with worry.

Ash has done plenty to get her wet and ready for him, and with her hands pushed over her head and her legs wrapped around him- she must have done that reflexively, without thinking, because she only just now realizes that she has done it- he teases the tip of his cock against her. If she wanted out now, she could easily break out of this, because as fit as he may be, she has a feeling that she is still stronger.

But she has no reason to try and break out now, and she allows him to hold her down as he teases her, drawing it out perhaps more than necessary, but just when she is about to tell him to just get on with it, he pushes forward, and Bea forgets everything else. For a moment, she is not sure that she can handle it, and not sure that she can take him, but then that all begins to fade, and as he pushes into her, she reminds herself to remain relaxed, letting him enter her with little resistance.

Ash struggles to keep his breathing steady, groaning a bit as he eases inside of Bea, but then, once he has filled her entirely, he takes a moment to try and regain his composure. Bea takes quick, gasping breaths, and as she adjusts to Ash’s size, the pleasure begins to creep in again, and she is soon lost to it.

Once Ash knows that he can comfortably move, he begins thrusting, lazily and steadily at first, and then picking up the pace as Bea works her hips with his, encouraging him and begging him for more. In no time at all, the two have begun to set a rough pace together, their mutual lust guiding them through it. Though neither knew that today would end up like this, though they had more stumbled into this encounter than anything else, their bodies must have been waiting for this, and relief now overtakes them.

Working their hips together, rocking them opposite one another, Bea is pushed to her limit far more quickly than she would have expected, her lust overpowering her self-control, and when she comes, she cries out, blinded by the pleasure of it all. She is only vaguely aware of Ash joining her in her orgasm, his low moans barely audible above her own, the unrestrained cries serving as the final sign of her loss of self-control.

Somehow, Bea does not feel any lesser for letting herself be overwhelmed so easily, and the humiliation of defeat does not creep in. Ash may have had his victory over her, but that does not mean she lost in any way. As the two lay together, panting as they try to catch their breath, he pulls her closer to him.

Bea has a feeling that they will both have plenty of fun killing time together on their off days. 

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