It was Bonnie who noticed first. The way she looked at him just a moment too long, how she always blushed when he talked to her, how she always laughed at his worst jokes. Especially his worst jokes.
Then it was Clemont, who saw every sideways glance and every stolen smile. How he seemed to be transported somewhere else when she was talking. The way they existed in their own universe when talking about something.
Ash didn't notice at all. Serena tried not to acknowledge it.
She's head-over-heels for him.
Serena liked Ash. Really, really liked him. How he scrunched his nose when he laughed, how he scratched his head when he was embarrassed, all the little things.
Ash liked Serena. There was something about her that drew him in, that made him want to be close to her. Maybe it was the way she smelled like cinnamon, or how she got that twinkle in her eye when she was talking about preforming, all the little things.
They liked each other. That much was clear, to everyone but them.
Serena had been patient with him. She had dropped as many hints as possible, stood as close to him as she could, without overstepping herself. But even she had limits to her patience, and she was reaching them. But it was so hard not to reach out and brush the hair out of his eyes, so difficult to not grab hold of his hand. She wanted nothing more than to be close to him. To listen to his stories, as many as he would tell her. She wanted to stay up to ungodly hours of the night with him, because the world just sort of stopped when he was near her.
Serena was special to Ash. It was kind of hard to explain; she made him feel something he hadn't felt with any of his other companions. Serena made him feel…good. Warm. Happy. Ash knew this meant something. What, he didn't know. All he knew is that she made him feel sort of carefree, and he liked that feeling. He liked being around her. Being with Serena was like constantly being in a ray of sunshine, always warm and content. When he was near her, listening to her talk, Ash couldn't think about anything else. Only her, only her words. Everything else just sort of stopped, like the whole world was listening to her, too.
People had started to tell them how cute they were together. Were they a couple? How long had they been together? Both Ash and Serena felt the same ache when the other blushingly told that person they were, in fact, not a couple.
It was the last straw for Serena when people started telling them how cute they were as a couple. Asking if they were together. Over and over again people asked, every time the group went out in a new town. And over and over again, Ash had to tell them no, they're not together, not dating, she isn't my girlfriend. Over and over again Serena's heart got heavier.
Ash didn't like to tell people that they weren't dating. It was embarrassing that they would assume, yes, but it wasn't like he was ashamed of her. He actually sort of wanted to be with her, publicly, privately, everywhere, nowhere. But he figured Serena didn't like the unwanted attention, and he would stop anything if it made her uncomfortable. He would keep telling these strangers, I'm not her boyfriend, no matter how saddening it was. He would do it for her.
Ash bought her something at a mall, just to say, "Hey, I'm thinking about you". It was a pink ribbon with a lace trim. He didn't think much of it. A friendly gift.
Serena tried not to think about it like that. Like it was a gift from a boyfriend. That's not what it was. It was a gift from her to him, a symbol of their friendship. A friendly gift.
Bonnie and Clemont noticed the exchange, done with shy smiles and blushing faces. They had been watching their friends recent closeness. They were getting so close, yet they were still worlds apart. Neither understood each other well enough quite yet. The siblings decided to make a game out of it. Let's see who can get them together faster.