Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon

Ash feared love.

It wasn't that he was terrified by it, like Misty with bugs. But he did everything in his power to ignore, so he would not succumb to it.

It never was the Ash was dense on the subject, years of being read romance novels and watching romantic movies as a kid cured him of that. It was that he was legitimately afraid of it, which is why he ignored girls in that manner. Though he was dense the rest of the time, he had no problem with romance. He played dumb, so dumb that he was able to convince himself that he was oblivious.

But he wasn't.

By the time Rudi came along in the Orange Islands, Ash was sure that Misty had a crush on him. He had always expected (it was JUST a bike) it, but choosing him over the forward Rudi confirmed it. He had no such feelings of that manner, even ones he tried to ignore. He liked Misty as a friend, and that was it. He played dumb to keep Misty around, hoping she would outgrow the crush and that they could be best friends. Ash had feared that this would be impossible after the groups split in Johto, but when they met for the Wallace Cup, he saw that the feelings had stopped, and he and Misty could just be best friends.

Then, there was the enigma of May. He could never tell what she wanted, and he had theories that it was for him. He thought that the incident with Oscar and Andi would confirm them, but they didn't. He just thanked Jirachi that she fell for Drew, as it made his lift simpler.

Then with Dawn… he knew that she thought he was cute. He had eavesdropped her saying it to Zoey. But there was a bit too large of an age gap between the two, and Dawn recognized this. So Ash never had a problem with love with her.

Iris was in love with either him or Cilan. He could never tell which. But she never acted on them. So he never had to deal with that issue

There were, on his travels, a few people that he knew fell for him. That was one thing that he did not like about himself, that he was so lovable. There had been Macy, the Johto fan girl. And then there was Angie, from the Pokémon Summer Camp. The two Bianca's (of Altomare and Unova.) There may have been others, but he hadn't noticed, so he was okay with it. He never had any problems with any of them, and could consider some friends and others rivals. Despite all the girls that had fawned over him, he never had any troubles.

Except for her. Except for Anabel

She, like those before and after her, had fallen for Ash, and that was not a surprise to Ash. He had grown used to it, and with what had happened between the two, he had somewhat expected it. What he hadn't expected, though, was Anabel telling him to read her heart and pretty much telling him she had a crush on him. That was the last thing he expected, but he played it cool. He fibbed, and the group left, with Anabel none the wiser that Ash knew.

She probably hoped, or maybe even prayed that he would comeback, but he wouldn't. He wouldn't because he was afraid. Afraid of her.

No girl had ever been that direct with him. Misty may have given signals, and Macy wanted to go on a date, but no girl had ever tried telling him that they loved him. She loved him, and do you know what the worst thing of it all was?

He had a crush on her too.

He had been so good in avoiding love, and avoiding crushes, avoiding everything that is tied with it, but he fell for her. He had tried ignoring it for months after their meeting, well over a year. He had made it halfway through Unova before he was forced to admit it to himself. That he wanted to be with Anabel.

And it sickened him.

Not that anything was wrong with Anabel, (that was in fact the problem), but he was sickened with himself. The one thing he had promised himself as a kid, he violated it. So, for a while, he tried to friend it out of his system. So he began to get in contact with Anabel a lot. Trying to become good friends with her. He began to just talk, treat her like a normal friend. Anything to extinguish his love for her,

After he finished the Unova region, he went back to Kanto and stayed for a while, just training his Pokémon. He hung out a lot with his past friends and Anabel. Especially Anabel. He tried to force his feelings away, to drown them with the feelings of friendship. And those feelings of friendship grew exponentially. They grew to know each other very well. After a few month stay in Kanto, Anabel's friendship with Ash began to rival Misty's and Pikachu's. He thought that the love would have drowned.

But it grew.

It grew to be as big as the friendship they shared. It became obvious to their friends they were an unofficial thing, and he hated it. They teased him, and he tried to stop it, but it was no use.

And it was not like he could go and crush Anabel's feelings for him. They were best friends, and best friends don't do that. Best friends don't tell the other lies like that. So nothing was said at all. Until Brock pushed Ash over the edge.

Brock was teasing him with the ease that he had with getting a girlfriend when he snapped at Brock. He yelled at him. Called him every bad name in the book. Degraded him. Tried everything to hurt Brock's feelings, but it didn't work. Brock was worried about him, and made him explain what was going on

Dialogue will come. Please review. Hope you enjoyed.