Ash X Bea Oneshot

[ Galar region, Stow-on-Side Gym ]

Every trainer had the duty to become stronger alongside their Pokémon. Some would take this literally, especially Fighting-type specialists. So it was no surprise that many had gyms which doubled as martial arts dojos.

And Bea from Stow-on-Side was no exception. Like many of her kind, she'd train hard to keep her edge, and while she was usually content on practicing with her Pokémon, she didn't have a regular human sparring partner to train with. At least, that was what she told Ash Ketchum when she convinced him to do this.

Ash wasn't exactly a martial arts expert. He just had some boxing knowledge, which he took to defend himself from bullies at school. He knew how to throw punches and how to block, the latter of which came in pretty useful, as Bea's kicks were nothing to sneeze at. Those legs of hers weren't just for show, it seemed.

"Don't just cover yourself, hit me!" Bea said.

"I'm trying!" Ash replied, as he tried to throw a right hook that the girl avoided without much trouble, and then delivered a sweeping kick to his ankles.

"Oof! Ouch…" Ash complained as he fell backwards on the mat. He opened his eyes a few seconds later, to find a Bea who'd already jumped on top of him, turning him face down on the mat as she sat on his back, submitting him with one hand and using the other to pull his arm. "Owowowow, that hurts!"

"So then, do you yield?" Bea asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I yield, but let go!" he said as he tapped the mat thrice with his free hand to give up.

Bea sighed and let him go. The boy saw how she stood up and walked in front of him, looking at him with a face of disappointment and her hands on her hips.

"I told you not to hold back with me."

"Who says I did?" he replied, still not getting up. "You're much better than me at this."

"Well, this time you lasted eight minutes before I took you down." The girl smiled and extended a hand to help him back on his feet. "You're definitely improving, Ash."

Ash accepted the hand, and the girl pulled him up. It was a bit hard, and he trembled a little due to their brief body contact. It was incredible how a girl with a slim figure like her could pack so much strength, but that didn't detract her attractiveness one bit. Then again, his closest female friend, the Cerulean Gym Leader, was very similar in that sense. Both of them were strong on the outside, and sweet on the inside, more than met the eye.

On the other side of the arena, Ash's Lucario was having a hand-to-hand combat against Bea's Machamp, with Pikachu supervising them. The four-armed Pokémon tried to strike his foe with all his limbs at once, but the latter dodged jumping backwards without issues, taking advantage of his nimbler constitution. Finally, when Machamp attempted to trap him in a grapple, Lucario dodged it with a somersault over him, kicking him on the nape to stun him. Next, he proceeded to rain a barrage of punches all over the body, ending with an uppercut to the jaw that knocked him backwards on the mat.

To cap it off, Lucario jumped on top of him, landing a double stomp on the stomach to knock the air out of him.

"Pika pika, Pikachu!" The electric mouse raised a hand, pointing at Lucario like a referee declaring the winner of the match.

"Looks like your Lucario won again," said Bead. "Well, I'm glad you don't slack off on training your Pokémon."

"Ha, at least their winning record is still better than mine," Ash replied, scratching the back of his head.

"That needs to change. You're good, but you always telegraph your blows. Besides, you leave your lower body unprotected."

The girl gave him a soft kick on the shin to emphasize her point. Ash rolled his eyes: how was he supposed to defend below, when he was too busy covering above from her high kicks? And his forearms really hurt from taking so many.

But well, we're done for today." Bea smiled at him, as she grabbed her training back to pull something out. "You've earned a prize for holding out so long. Korrina sent me these yesterday, but I saved them so we could eat them together."

Ash's eyes glowed when he saw what Bea pulled out: a couple of boxes full of varied Kalosian sweets. They were expensive, but delicious, and both of them loved them. Each one opened a box, and they sat to eat them.

"Hmm! This is great, I hadn't eaten one of these in forever," said Ash, grabbing a dark chocolate muffin with a Pecha berry."

He was ready to grab another, but Bea went ahead and snatched it. The boy was about to protest, but Bea was smiling at him, not making any attempt to eat it.

"Hey, give it back."

"Ask me politely," she said.

Ash almost rolled his eyes, but he knew better than to contradict her. "Can you give that muffin back, please?"

"Hmm… close your eyes and say 'aaaahhh'."

It was a bit humiliating, but he humored her, and fortunately she complied, leaving the muffin in his face. Ash decided to pay her back doing the same, but she didn't protest, and almost immediately she knew she just had to say "aaaahhh", so he could place the cake on her mouth.

Ash didn't get why couples would do that, but if she liked it, there was no reason to question it. After all, it'd been quite a while since the time they were just rivals.

Although maybe, a spark had already ignited when they shared some cakes during their second match. That was when he discovered the girl's fondness for sweets, and that she wasn't as serious or harsh as she appeared in their first encounter.

And as the saying went, third time was the charm, when they faced each other with all their power. Lucario defeated Machamp giving them the match, and from there on out he earned Bea's respect, enough for her to call him by his name when she'd previously called him "Riolu/Lucario's Trainer".

That was the first step for their relationship to be more than just of competitors. She would often call him to say that "she needed a sparring partner", and he gladly accepted. But then, she suggested that he should train with her as well, in martial arts, which he had no inconvenience with either, until it was evident that she was just trying to make excuses to spend time with him.

When he finally asked her upfront why she called him so often, when she could do the same with Korrina or someone else, her answer caught him completely off-guard.

"Because I like you."

And from that point, one thing led to another. In reality, once he went past that tough, serious exterior of hers, Bea was a really nice girl, and also easy on the eyes. More than once he'd catch himself glancing at her legs, and not just because he had to watch out for her kicks during the sparring sessions. Not to mention she had a very cute smile.

Of course, Bea's intention by putting him to train turned out to be, in her own words, "I want my boyfriend to be in good shape". Which to her meant he should be able to win one or two bouts of hand-to-hand combat against her, which he hadn't done since they started. He wasn't sure why she wanted that, but if he made her happy, who was he to refuse?

Plus, it wasn't like he didn't enjoy those sparring sessions, despite getting his butt kicked every time.

Hey," she suddenly said, interrupting his inner monologue.

"What's up?" He was about to bite another muffin.

"You've got some cream on your face."

And without further words, the girl slid a finger across his cheek to wipe off the cream. But if that wasn't enough, she took her finger to her mouth to suck it rather… suggestively, to say the least. The boy felt his cheeks burning up a little; for a tough girl who practiced martial arts, she also knew how to flirt.

They continued chewing on their sweets, and at one point Ash noticed she also had some cream on the cheek. It was his chance for some payback.

"Hey, you've got some cream too," he said to get her attention.

However, rather than use his hands (both of them were occupied holding one muffin each), he leaned in close to her face, and used his mouth to wipe off the cream. In doing so, he did a smooch sound as he sucked it, leaving a few leftovers. But once he leaned back, Bea's expression was priceless.

Her eyes were wide, her cheeks were flushing, and her half-open mouth also had some chocolate leftovers on the sides. It was a bit tempting to wipe those off too, but the boy held back. He didn't want to push his luck that much.

"That was… bold of you," she said with a smile.

"Was it wrong?" Ash asked innocently.

"No… of course not."

Ash chuckled, and went back to his own sweets, as he watched how Pikachu, Lucario and the rest of Bea's Pokémon gave him approving glances.

Bea could be a better martial artist than him, but at least, Ash could boast about beating him at two things. In Pokémon battles… and today in teasing. He couldn't let his girlfriend upstage him too much, right?