Words in italics indicate Serena's inner thoughts.
Serena's POV
Serena had everything she had ever asked for, and it depressed her. Here she was, sitting on a picnic blanket by the sunset on the beach, watching schools of luvdisc jump out of the water in tandem with hordes of milotic, nestled in the arms of her longtime crush, Ash Ketchum, the boy who had just professed his undying love for her and was now waxing poetic about how incredible she was, and she felt worse than she did after messing up her first performance spectacularly. Off in the distance, Serena could see her braixen and Ash's frogadier holding hands together and skipping in a field of beautiful flowers, looking happier together than Serena had ever seen either of them, particularly the usually stoic frogadier. The sight only elicited another sigh from the girl's mouth, and she pushed the third box of chocolates Ash had given her away to give herself room to stand up and get out of her new boyfriend's grasp. Ash didn't seem to notice or care, lost in his endless praise of the great Serena, which only drove the point that Serena was dreaming home for her.
Why can't I dream of something else for once?!
It wasn't that Serena never dreamed of other things, performing with her pokémon being one of the other common themes of her unconscious world, but this recurring dream where Serena's love life was perfectly fulfilled in the best way possible only ever made her pay attention to just how unrealistic her expectations were. How could she ever believe that Ash would gain the know-how to understand what being romantic or even having an emotional connection to something that wasn't a pokémon was? It was a ridiculous notion given a vibrant and colorful reality that didn't exist. Still, the dream never caused Serena to give up her pursuits. After all, it was Ash himself that had taught her how to stop giving up on everything, showing her the joy that could be found in anything she did as long as she put her all into it, and, perhaps most importantly, demonstrating by example just how important and fulfilling a pokémon journey could be for someone. These were a few of the reasons Serena continued her chase, intent on running until she reached the finish line her dreams taunted her with.
"Alright, time to wake up." Telling herself to wake up usually worked when she realized she was dreaming, and thankfully the Ash dream was no exception. Saying the words out loud was the only thing that ever got a reaction out of dream Ash, and, try as she might, Serena was never able to tear her eyes away from the hurt and betrayal that always appeared in Ash's countenance as the dream world slowly blurred and faded around them until Serena woke up with her arms outstretched and gasping, desperately trying to bring back the slumber she had ended herself, if only to ease the pain on a figment of her imagination.
The awakening was almost worse to Serena than the dream itself, leaving her in the all-too-familiar state of longing that never hit her until her conscious mind took over. She realized that there was no way she was going to get back to sleep anytime soon, and her tablet told her it was close to midnight.
Might as well go for a walk. It could clear my head, or at least make me tired enough to sleep again.
Her mind made up, the performer threw on her red vest, hat, and sandals, leaving Bonnie in the only other bed in her room as the boys had an adjacent room, and exited a thankfully empty pokémon center. There was no way she wouldn't have received some strange looks for her outfit, but it wasn't like she was going into town or anything. Instead, Serena veered off towards the route that she, Ash, Clemont and Bonnie had taken into town so she would have some idea of a way back in the darkness of the night, thankfully partially illuminated by a nearly full moon. As Serena wandered around the rather basic and unremarkable path, her thoughts inevitably turned away from the best kind of berry to use to make a Poképuff that fighting types would enjoy to Ash.
Oh, Ash... what do you even think about me? I was basically dragged along with you for the first half of your journey. Even now that I have a new dream to pursue of my own, I still feel like you have to work to accommodate for me. Do you even think we're friends? Of course you do, you think everyone you meet is your friend. You're so caring, and kind, and handsome...
Serena was blushing with increasing redness as her thoughts ran away from her, but she didn't really care, since no one was around to see her, the route completely abandoned at this hour.
Thank goodness no one is here. I probably look crazy with this outfit and my blush. Actually, I should get off the main path just in case. I've got Braixen if I get lost.
Serena's hand briefly made contact with the single poké ball in her vest pocket, and the action caused her hand to brush against something else. Smiling nostalgically, she pulled out the second object, the blue ribbon Ash had given her. She always kept it in her vest when she wasn't wearing her day clothes so she wouldn't lose it, and the small token that held so much meaning because of its original owner never failed to give Serena the strength to continue after a difficult day, or, in this instance, a nightmare sugarcoated as wish fulfillment.
You're extremely sweet and you don't even know it, Ash. You can make me feel better without even being here. Maybe it's time I headed back.
As she returned the ribbon to her pocket, Serena turned to leave when she realized she had no idea where she was, the forest that seemed so familiar not ten seconds ago suddenly completely unrecognizable under the cover of darkness.
Great. Way to go, Serena. I'm sure Braixen can help you find your way out of this. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The performer emphasized her thoughts to herself by slapping her forehead in frustration, thinking she would have to just pick a direction and hope she got lucky when she suddenly heard salvation in the form of voices. They seemed oddly familiar, but Serena's still slightly groggy mind didn't register that in the excitement of being able to ask actual people for directions. She took off in the direction of the voices, a clearing up ahead seeming to be her new destination. The voices became clearer as Serena as she approached and she slowed her pace so as not to scare them.
"Are you sure we can't strike now? The twerp has been just sitting over there for the last few hours."
"Really Jessie? You want to break tradition? Get your priorities in order!"
"Yeah, even da twerp wouldn't forgive us if we struck now!"
Serena stopped dead as the familiar voices gained meaningful words, quickly hiding behind a tree just at the edge of the clearing, unfortunately stepping hard on some dead branches as she did so with an audible crack.
"What was that?"
"What was what, Meowth? I didn't hear anything."
"Over there, dummy! there's someone trying to snoop on us over there!"
"You think it's the twerp?"
"One way to find out!"
Serena held back a small eep as she realized she had just tried to run to Team Rocket, the trio of Jessie, James and Meowth that constantly tried to steal her and her group's pokémon, for directions. Even worse, it seemed as if Meowth knew she was there. Deciding that neither running nor hiding were viable options at this point, Serena mustered up her courage and stepped from her hiding place, startling Meowth, who had been cautiously approaching the tree Serena was hiding behind. "Gah! It's the big twerpette!"
Serena put on her brave face and released her braixen, the fire type calling out its name in pride and preparing to battle for its trainer. "I don't know what you three are doing out here, but it can't be good, so cut it out!"
Jessie looked at the girl incredulously. "What's with the outfit?"
Serena blushed madly as she remembered her current attire. "That's not important! You're trying to divert attention away from whatever evil scheme you came up with!"
James yawned and waved a hand dismissively at the performer. "Excuse you, fashion failure, but we aren't doing anything at the moment. We need to sleep too, you know," the blue-haired man almost looked bored, as if he had wanted something more exciting to come out of the forest.
"Yeah, so why don't ya scram before we have to get nasty? I don't want to waste my time when my cat nap is calling," Meowth said, unsheathing its claws menacingly.
Serena felt unsure of herself for a moment. Maybe they really weren't doing anything for once, and she had just gotten extremely unlucky. Then she remembered the small part of the trio's conversation she had heard before unintentionally interrupting.
"You think I'm buying that?! I know you're just trying to get Pikachu again. I heard what you were talking about!" She was taking a gamble with throwing Pikachu's name out there, as the term twerp could refer to Clemont or Ash, but her bluff seemed to have worked as Jessie and James exchanged an annoyed glance before summoning their respective pokémon pumpkaboo and inkay. The floating pumpkin and squid stared down Braixen as everyone realized where this was going.
"If you're so insistent on thwarting our plans, then I'd love to see you try, twerpette! Pumpkaboo, shadow ball!"
"Okay, Inkay, I say use psybeam!"
The two pokémon charged and fired their attacks simultaneously, creating a glowing white ball of dark energy that hurled towards Braixen.
"Braixen, quick, counter with flamethrower!" The fire fox responded with a cry, firing an intense stream of fire from its stick that collided with the combination attack, causing a massive explosion that ended all three attacks. James and Jessie looked annoyed.
"You weren't supposed to be able to stop that, twerpette! show her, Pumpkaboo! Use leech seed!"
"Inkay, foul play!"
Serena panicked a bit. Pumpkaboo had shot the leech seed at the ground near Braxien and dangerous vines were shooting out towards Braixen at high speed, while Inkay was coming at her pokémon from the air with foul play. There wasn't a way to stop one attack without taking the other.
Unless...
"Braixen, use scratch on Inkay and send it into the leech seed!"
James gasped as Braixen jumped high into the air and, with all the grace of a performer, brought a downward scratch onto an Inkay whose momentum was already directed downwards, sending James' pokémon crashing into the mess of life-draining vines on the ground.
"Jessie, call the attack off already!"
Jessie looked enraged at being outplayed. "You know I can't, James! Just let me take care of it! Pumpkaboo, one more shadow ball!" The spooky pumpkin launched another powerful shadow ball at the still falling braixen, this one connecting with it's target and sending the fire type crashing hard to the ground.
"Braixen! Are you ok?!" Serena called to her pokémon in a panic, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when she saw her trusted partner struggle to its feet, flashing a determined grin to Serena before facing its opponents again. Serena realized she needed Braixen's confidence if she wanted to win this. She needed Ash's confidence.
"Ok, Braixen, give that pumpkaboo a taste of flamethrower!"
Braixen seemed to tense up a little more before firing the flamethrower, and the stream of fire seemed much larger and faster than before, hitting Pumpkaboo hard before Jessie could call to dodge, falling to the ground smoking and knocked out. Jessie's mouth dropped, while James was panicking.
"We appear to have activated Braixen's Blaze ability. Inkay! You won't be able to take a hit, so finish this with foul play, full power!"
Serena's pride in her pokémon for taking out one of her foes quickly vanished as she saw Inkay, which had managed to wriggle itself free after struggling with the leech seed attack for some time, jet towards her starter as Braixen dropped to one knee, the after-effects of the powerful attack forcing the fire type to take a breather. Serena knew what she had to do. She ran in front of her closest pokémon, meeting Inkay head on, sending both her and the small squid careening off to the side painfully. Serena groaned but managed to get up well enough, and was able to call out another attack for her fire type.
"Braixen, finish with another flamethrower!"
Braixen took a deep breath and began to prepare another flamethrower from its stick. Inkay saw this and panicked, flying straight back to its trainer, causing the entirety of Team Rocket to panic.
"Inkay, no! Anywhere but here!" James flailed his arms wildly at Inkay to try to get it to fly somewhere else, to no avail. Braixen finished preparing and fired the flamethrower at a blistering speed, now directly at Team Rocket, causing an explosion that sent the entire team flying off into the sky, the explosion lighting up the night.
"Way to go, James," Jessie said irritatingly. "You let us get beat by the twerpette."
James wasted no time snapping back, exclaiming, "Like you did any better, Jessie! Your pumpkaboo attacked my inkay!"
Meowth had clearly had enough, yelling, "I'm gonna attack both of you with my fury swipes if you don't can it!"
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" The trio disappeared with a twinkle into the sky. Serena cheered to herself. She had driven Team Rocket away, all by herself! Maybe she wasn't as bad at this training thing as she thought. Although, not only had she almost badly hurt herself, Braixen had also been damaged...
Braixen!
Serena ran to the side of her injured pokémon. Braixen, while still standing, had opted to again take a knee. Serena gave her pokémon a hug in thanks for its efforts and gave it an oran berry she only had because Ash always carried them when he trained so she kept a fresh one in her vest should he run out. The fire type accepted the healing berry gratefully and consumed it. Slowly, the fox was able to stand again and appeared to be feeling much better. Serena was relieved to solve one of her problems.
"Okay, Braixen... the berry will help, but you still need rest. I'll call on you again if I need you." Serena started to pull out her poké ball before Braixen grabbed her arm and shook its head in denial.
"Brai, brai braixen!" Serena smiled at the devotion of her pokémon.
"I appreciate your concern, Braixen, but I'll be okay. I need you to rest so that you can fight again if I need you to. Does that make sense?" Braixen reluctantly nodded, and Serena gave her pokémon a warm smile before recalling it to its poké ball. She looked around again. As great as beating Team Rocket was, it didn't exactly help her find her way back to town. While she looked around to try and determine the best place to continue her search for the main road, the sound of pounding feet caught her ear. Someone else was coming. Serena briefly considered hiding again, but being in the middle of a clearing kind of made that impossible. Instead, she forced herself to put on a brave face and got ready to surprise the person if they were hostile with Braixen, holding the poké ball firmly in her hand. Suddenly, a very angry pikachu jumped out of the bushes, followed immediately by the last person she expected to see at this hour.
"Pikachu, use- oh." Ash Ketchum looked just as surprised as Serena was to see a friendly face, the two staring at each other for a few seconds before each truly registered the other's presence. Serena was the first to gather her wit to speak. "Um... what are you doing out here?"
Ash finally relaxed his battle stance and walked over to her."I could ask you the same question. Are you okay, Serena? What happened?"
Serena looked at herself and realized how bad she must look compared to her normal appearance. She quickly made an effort to straighten herself out to reassure Ash. "Well, I was going for a walk, when I got lost, then I heard voices coming from somewhere, and I thought I was saved, but it turned out to be Team Rocket, and I had to fight them off, and I sent them blasting off! Then you showed up."
Ash took this information in slowly, frowning when he heard Team Rocket had attacked her. "Those jerks! Attacking you like that. They would try to pull something dirty tonight of all nights. Are you sure you're okay? I wouldn't forgive them if they hurt you."
Serena was flattered by Ash's concern, but she didn't want him to worry about her.
I do enough worrying for the both of us.
"I'm ok, really. Just a few minor scratches and bumps... wait, hold on, what do you mean, tonight of all nights?"
Ash slapped his forehead. "Oh right, you don't know! They don't celebrate it here in Kalos like we do in Kanto. Come with me! Come on, Pikachu, nothing dangerous here."
Pikachu turned and nodded to it's trainer, running back in the way the two had come from. Ash grabbed Serena's hand and pulled her along with him, the girl madly blushing at the contact, her mind unable to process the event.
Oh my gosh Ash showed up and he's here and we're holding hands. WE'RE HOLDING HANDS! Calm down Serena. Focus. He's also dragging you through a forest. Just don't trip.
The final thought came just in time, as Serena had to run herself to avoid tripping and falling on her face, running as fast as possible to keep up with the energetic young boy. The two ran to another, smaller clearing, where Ash thankfully stopped and let Serena gasp for air, thankfully giving her a reason to be blushing. In the clearing, all of Ash's pokémon were sitting around and talking in their own language, surrounding what appeared to be a box of fireworks. Ash released Serena from his grip, to her mild disappointment, and walked over to greet his pokémon cheerfully and explain to them why Serena suddenly appeared.
"Hey, Serena, can you let Braixen out? we need a lighter and Fletchinder isn't as accurate as Braixen." Serena didn't even question her crush and released her pokémon, which was pleasantly surprised to be released into a circle of friends before finally deciding to confront Ash.
"Ok, Ash. What is this all about?"
Ash gave her a toothy smile.
"Do you know what tonight is?"
Serena pondered for a moment before an answer came to her.
"Oh, it's New Year's Eve, isn't it?"
Ash nodded enthusiastically.
"Yup! And in Kanto, it's a tradition at midnight to launch fireworks into the sky to celebrate the new year, so I got Clemont to make some for me. They do it in other regions, but I was sad they didn't do it in Kalos, so I decided to do it myself out here, where no one can hear it, I wouldn't risk hurting anyone and Frogadier could stop any misfires. I thought that explosion might have been Team Rocket attacking someone, since they know about the tradition too. I'm glad you came out ok, really." Ash stopped to ponder if he had forgotten anything while Serena took the information in.
So Kanto people launch fireworks to celebrate the New Year. Interesting. I guess we have a tradition here as well... but... um...
Serena's thoughts were interrupted by Ash as he suddenly realized what he was forgetting.
"And they have to be launched at midnight for good luck! That's right."
Serena checked her tablet and realized it was 11:57 P.M.. Three minutes to go. Ash showed Braixen how to light the fireworks properly, showed it the signal he would give it to light them, and ran a fair distance away before climbing up a tree to a decently high branch. Ash's other pokémon, save Frogadier, who was on firefighter duty in case of emergency, ran to their own respective trees while Ash beckoned to Serena.
"Come on, hurry! We'll be able to see them really well from up here!"
Serena looked at the tree and then her outfit and then back again, sighing.
The things I do for love.
Serena jogged over to the tree and, removing her sandals to give herself better grip on the tree, started to climb it to the best of her ability, which actually wasn't terrible, but certainly nowhere near that of Ash. The only things that got her any forward progress up the tree were the fact that the tree had a ton of climbable branches and the determination to reach Ash. It took her almost the entire time limit she had to get up, but Serena eventually reached the branch Ash was on, Ash himself moving to allow Serena to sit next to him while she leaned against the trunk. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, I wasn't really expecting any company besides my pokémon tonight."
Serena caught her breath and faced her crush, her small anger at him forcing her to go climbing drowning in the deep pools of his eyes. "It's okay, really. I climbed a tree or two when I was younger to get away from ryhorn racing practice... wow."
Ash certainly knew how to pick trees. The view from the branch the two sat so close together on gave a surprisingly clear window to the sky, perfect for looking at fireworks. Braixen and Frogadier were tiny from the distance Serena had put between them, and Serena couldn't see Ash's other pokémon, but she knew they were nearby. Ash grinned. "I know, right? Feels like fate I found this spot. You know, Serena? there is something I wanted to say, since we have a few seconds."
Serena could feel her blush, already returning due to how close she was sitting to her crush, intensify.
"Yes, Ash?"
Ash took a deep breath. "I wanted to thank you again. You've done so much for me ever since I started my journey here in Kalos, and I feel really grateful for all the inspiration I got from you. I mean, well, I could still be fighting for my first gym badge if it wasn't for you!" The boy laughed at that, and Serena took the chance to counter his statement.
"You've inspired me far more than that, Ash! I'd have given up on so many things if it wasn't for your encouragement back when we were younger. You helped me start my journey, find my dream, and even work to achieve it. So I should be thanking you."
Ash smiled at the now madly blushing girl. "I'm not doing anything special, really. I'm just trying to show you some of the confidence you have inside of you, because you deserve to make full use of it."
Thankfully for Serena's blush, the girl's tablet started to let out a small beep for every second, something she knew it started doing when there were ten seconds left until the new year. She quickly pointed this out to Ash and began counting out loud with him while Braixen, going on a signal Ash gave it, lit the fuse on the fireworks.
"6..."
"5..."
"4..."
"3..."
"2..."
"1..."
"Happy New Year!" The exclamation from both trainers was drowned out by the sound of multiple fireworks launching into the sky, lighting it up in brilliant colors from lime green to deep purple. The show was dazzling, with every color of the rainbow being represented in every combination of colors, passionate reds and oranges dancing with refreshing blues and greens, painting the night with a shining palette of light that would make any painter jealous. Serena was awestruck, and she turned to Ash to see his eyes shining, looking not at the fireworks, but at her, restoring any blush that had faded in the wake of the brilliant show. The fireworks soon began launching at a rate slow enough that the two could hear each other.
"As I was saying, Serena... I want to do something for you in return. Something meaningful, you know? Is there anything Kaloseans do on New Year's instead of fireworks? We can do that if you want to." Serena blushed a deeper shade of red than the burning crimson of the firework exploding in the sky above her, which only served to make her look more red than she already was, if such a thing was possible.
"Well... um... yeah..."
You know what it is! Spit it out! You won't get another shot!
"There is... one tradition we have."
Ash beamed at his close companion. "Great! what is it?"
Serena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. If she was going to do this, she had to do it. No turning back now. She opened her eyes and forced herself to borrow from Ash the courage for what she was about to do. "In Kalos...between the people closest to us... we start a new year with this."
Serena leaned forward before Ash could react and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.
She leaned back and rested herself against the trunk of the tree, blushing scarlet and a bit in shock that she actually managed to do what she had just done. Had she really just kissed her crush? She looked at Ash. He had his hand on his cheek where her lips had touched, and he looked just as shocked as she was, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Serena turned her gaze to the firework base, where she saw, of all things, Braixen and Frogadier holding hands while they watched the fireworks together.
Wait a minute... is this a dream... no... this must be a dream... there's no way... that I just...
"Alright, time to wake up..." Serena almost muttered the words absentmindedly, sadly waiting for her fantasy to again come crashing down. What happened instead, while she was looking away at her pokémon, was she felt an arm wrap itself around her and hold her tightly.
"I guess it is. I've been asleep to this for a while, haven't I?" Serena nodded silently, trying her hardest not to look at what she knew would be dream Ash's pleading face for her to stay. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to ignore Ash and turned to face him, only to see excitement and passion flashing inside of her crush's eyes inside of sorrow.
"Serena... you aren't dreaming. And now, I'm not either." Before Serena could respond, It was Ash's turn to lean forward, and he planted his own small kiss directly on Serena's lips.
"Happy New Year, Serena."