For You Blue

Disclaimer: Pokémon or the characters of this story do not, in any way, belong to me.

Reviews will be highly appreciated.

He never really noticed it himself, never really seemed to notice, but, unknowingly, he was always looking at those blue eyes. He couldn't wonder why, but those eyes seemed valuable, that's what he thought. Something like diamonds or other priceless gems. Whatever, he never could really figure it out.

First, the glances were...unintentional, or so he thought. But soon, he found it inevitable. He had to look at them, or his day wouldn't be made. The eyes were a perfect blue, something he'd never really seen before. All his previous travelling companions had dark coloured ones, so this was a pretty new colour to him. He didn't find out the cause of this particular infatuation, but he liked it. Loved it, in fact.

He would find himself starting at those orbs even at the stupidest of times. When he was in a tough match, looking at those eyes gave him the confidence he needed. When Team Rocket was stealing their Pokémon, looking at those eyes have him the power he required. During meals, she would be sitting beside him, and he would always glance at her. At those eyes.

Sometimes, Pikachu would catch him staring, and when asked, he would reply with some lame excuse while his cheeks heated up. But this would never stop, he never even thought of stopping. Stopping would mean...betrayal? He didn't know, neither did he care. As long as he could stare at those eyes, he would be content with life, content with everything.

One day, she caught him. "Is there something on my face, Ash?" She asked.

"Huh?" He looked confusedly, not registering her sentence. "What?"

"You've been staring at me for quite some time now," she replied, a slight blush forming on her face.

"Nah, there's n-nothing. Your face is p-pretty as always," He stammered, not noticing the selection of words. Her blush seemed to grow but the topic was dropped and she turned away. He mentally kicked himself for his stupidity and cursed fate for letting her know he was staring.

By now, staring at those beautiful blue-orbs had become something very special to him; he could not let a day go by before staring at them. It was a feeling he both hated and loved at the same time. He hated it because it took away his focus, his concentration, his time. He loved it because...because what? He didn't know why he loved it. He just loved it more than anything, and now it was beginning to creep him out. He had started feeling like a stalker, or an eye-stalker, it that's even a thing and it was disturbing him a lot.

He had never experienced something like this before, and this fact was freaking him out. He had travelled with so many people, a lot of them female, and he had never felt like this. The fact scared him. Was he doing something wrong? Was the feeling a wrong one? He never found the answer to those pesky questions, but those questions sure did steal his nights away. Soon, his training started to get affected. His Pokémon noticed, Clemont and Bonnie noticed, she noticed. And when asked, he wasn't sure what to answer.

So, he would grin the fake grin and talk the fake talk and all would be well, or so he thought. She soon started getting worried. Was he okay? Was he hiding something from her? A million thoughts cluttered her mind and soon her nights were stolen away too. At meals, she would glance worriedly at her companion. He would seem okay, but she knew something was there. Something was bothering him and she was gonna find out what! After all, he had done so much for her, surely she could do something to return the favour, and maybe, just maybe, be with him, spend some time with him.

His dreams would consist of her face and, of course, her eyes. He would wake up breathlessly, down a glass of water and then try to lessen the growing aching in his chest. Whenever he thought about her, about her eyes, he would feel as if a bullet was piercing slowly through his heart. Out of innocent worry, he once even asked Nurse Joy to conduct a full health check-up of him. The results were perfectly normal. Everything was okay, so why was this pain growing day by day? Maybe stress? No matter how hard he tried, he could not find the reason.

One day, a long telephonic - conversation with an old friend of his, who was experienced in things like these, revealed something rather peculiar to him. He didn't remember the conversation exactly, but remembered words like "love", "falling", etc. He was too damn sleepy by the time the talk reached that point, so you can't really blame him. But still, those words were something to think about. He utilized the full capacity of his brain to put 2 and 2 together, but the answer was always 4, not something special.

He was really dense at things like these. Defeated and tired, he decided to let it be and just learn to live with the constant pain. It would fade away someday, wouldn't it? But fate had other plans in store for the wannabe Pokémon Master.

His life was soon to take a big turn, for the better, of course. The gang had decided to take a two day break. They'd stopped and set-up camp in the forest they were crossing. The next gym was kilometres away in the southern region of Kalos. A perfect opportunity for Cupid to work his magic.

"So, why are we stopping?" Ash asked.

"I told you. The next gym's undergoing renovations and is quite a long distance from here. Come on, Ash, probably wouldn't hurt to take a 2-day break. Besides, all that training is starting to wear you down," Clemont smiled brightly at his friend.

Ash was about to come up with a response but decided against it. He had a feeling that his friends had begun to notice his...predicament. And he didn't want them to worry any further. Maybe, the heartache would stop by taking some rest. Yeah, that was probably it. So, smiling like the inventor, Ash nodded and called out all his Pokémon. They were, naturally, highly relieved and pleasantly excited at the prospect of a 2-day break. They had been fighting very hard, you know.

"Before we set up the tent, I want someone to go get some dry wood and leaves for the evening fire," Clemont announced as he wiped some sweat off his forehead. "As far as my knowledge goes, this forest is home a large number to Ursaring and other wild Pokémon, which can attack us. The fire should keep them at bay."

Bonnie and Dedenne shuddered at the mention of Ursaring while Serena and Ash nodded knowingly.

"I'll go get the wood and leaves" volunteered Ash as he put on his cap. He then stood up and proceeded to walk towards the dense forest surrounding the clearing where the gang had put up.

"I will come with you," Serena said as she stood up. If the pain in Ash's chest had subsided, which it hadn't, then now it came back with a force twice as crushing and for a moment the trainer had to wonder if he was getting a heart stroke.

"Yeah, s-sure." Ash managed to say. "Pikachu, you help Clemont and Bonnie set up camp, okay?"

"Pikachu!" An affirmative and then Ash and Serena began their trek to gather what Clemont had asked them to gather.

Psychological studies have shown that it takes precisely 6 seconds for a silence to turn awkward, same situation with Ash and Serena. The duo walked in silence. No one speaking a word, the forest life also having gone silent after sensing the unresolved tension between the blonde and black-haired humans.

"Finally some leaves!" Serena finally broke the silence which had become suffocation by now. She bent down to pick up the leaves, before turning to her companion. "There are some wood logs to your right. Maybe they are dry."

Ash nodded, still not speaking, which was very atypical of him. Serena glanced worriedly at her friend as he too bent down and began checking the wood. He was being awfully quiet and it was beginning to worry the girl. "Ash, you're okay, right?" she asked innocently, never even thinking that she was the reason of his problem.

"Yeah!" He replied. "Why do you ask?"

"It just that...nah, it's nothing."

"Ok."

And then silence again.

Serena sighed silently as she continued picking up the leaves. Something was off with him. Once again, various thoughts ran into her mind. Was she not worthy of knowing his problem? Was she not worthy of being his friend? Was she not worthy of helping him out? Was she not worthy of loving him? So many questions, not a single answer. She sighed again and tried to focus on her task. Clemont would be disappointed if she failed and she didn't want that to happen.

With a final deep-breath, Serena stood up. She had collected enough dry leaves in the bag provided to her by Clemont and now it was already 2 p.m. "Ash, you done?" she asked.

"Yep!" He replied back. He had collected a significant amount of wooden logs. "Let's go b-back." His tongue still had stuttering problems.

The duo turned to walk back, but suddenly, a suspicious sound came from the nearby bush. And in the most cliché style possible, an Ursaring leapt out. His growl revealing his sharp teeth. He raised his paws, which were adorned with sharp talons, which had the power of scaring the living daylights of anyone, and growled ferociously at Serena and Ash.

"An Ursaring!" Serena shrieked, having dropped her bag of dry leaves.

"Run!" Ash shouted as the duo began running in the opposite direction. As expected, the wild bear – Pokémon gave chase. The bag of leaves and the wooden logs were left behind.

After some moments of fierce chasing, Ursaring decided to raise the standard of his attack.

"It's using Hyper Beam!" Serena exclaimed as she turned back to her running.

'Oh boy, this is gonna hurt,' Ash thought before stopping, catching Serena and then sliding, painfully, downhill. The Ursaring realized the futility of his chase and then promptly stopped, let out a snarl and tracing back his steps.

As for Ash and Serena, well, they duo was safe but Serena couldn't get that blush off her face. She was pretty...surprised by Ash's action. Speaking of Ash, he had gotten some real nasty scratches but nothing serious.

"What was...that?" Serena asked after recovering from her shock.

"Only way to escape," Ash shrugged. "I had to save you."

"And get so badly hurt?" Serena asked angrily. "Gosh, Ash, what is something had happened to you?!"

"You were my priority, Serena," he replied. "Besides, I don't think I've gotten anything serious."

Serena looked at him before softly touching the bleeding wound on his right wrist. Ash cringed, as Serena expected and then the girl softly slapped the back of his head

"Nothing serious, right?" she asked sarcastically before her expression softened. "Ash, you've gotten hurt badly."

Ash looked at his wrist before looking back at her. "Well, I don't think there's anything I can do about it." He said sheepishly.

Serena giggled. "Sure you can, silly. Let me help you." And with that she pulled out the handkerchief which started their relationship all those years ago. Ash stared at her.

"Is that-"

"Yep. I keep it with me all the time. It's my good luck charm." She smiled as she proceeded to bandage his wrist. And despite him, Ash found himself staring at her, at those blue eyes, and the chest-pain returned. He entered silent mode.

After some minutes Serena was finished bandaging the wound. All of Ash's other wounds had dried by now and the bleeding had stopped.

"There, it's done," she announced while looking at her work proudly. Ash glanced at his hand and he had to admit, it was pretty nicely done. "We should get back, you know."

"Yeah."

Then he stood up, dusted his clothes and the two began walking. Once more, a suffocating silence commenced. It seemed as if Ash was walking without direction and Serena was silently following him. The raven-haired trainer did not care, at the moment, where he was going or where he was leading Serena. His brain was losing its functioning capacity day by day and Ash had to wonder if he would soon end up in some mental asylum. Damn those eyes and damn the person they adorn!

Serena sighed. She had had enough. With a determined resolve, she took in a deep breath and gently caught his left hand. The action immediately stopped Ash and a shiver went down his spine and his cheeks reddened a little.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he turned to face the blonde girl.

"I should ask you the same question," she replied back. "What's wrong, Ash?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie. At least not to me."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes you are."

"How can you say?"

"I know everything."

"I thought Clemont knew everything." His attempt at humour failed miserably.

Serena sighed again, this was not working. Not only was Ash dense, he was also stubborn as hell.

So, without thinking, Serena started walking towards a nearby shady tree; her hand maintaining a strong but extremely gentle grip on Ash's hand. "Serena, where are we going?" he asked as he struggled to keep up with her.

When they'd reached the tree, Serena let go. She turned to face him. "Sit." She said. Ash sat. And she sat beside him.

"Now, you can lie to the whole world and get away with it, Ash, but I've a lot of experience in things like these," she stared straight into his brown eyes.

Ash looked at her as if she was crazy. "I don't know what you're talking about here."

"Don't lie," she said. "Come on, Ash, you can tell me. I'm your friend. I can help you solve your problem."

Ash's brain stopped thinking for a moment and that moment was enough to say what he wanted to say but also didn't want to say. Kinda confusing, right? "The problem's you."

Serena's eyes widened in shock. Had she done something wrong? Had she hurt him?

As Ash saw Serena's shocked face, he panicked. "No, that now what I meant! I mean, it's something else!"

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's just that...I dunno how to put it...ah...Serena...I...love...your...e-eyes," he stuttered out.

"You do what?" she asked a blush forming on her face.

"It's just that...I always wanna be with you and I-" But he was cut off. Turns out, Serena had understood what he wanted to say. She, in a flash of confidence previously unknown to her, quickly pecked his lips. The blush on her face couldn't possibly grow more, but that would be an understatement.

And then, as if on instinct, Ash blurted out the 3 words which are pretty central in day-to-day human life. "I love you."

"I love you too."

All the heartache disappeared. All the pesky questions answered. Everything gone good.

When Ash fully regained his senses, he found her head on his shoulder and he instinctively put his arm around her. The couple sat in comfortable silence, enjoying the new-found company and feeling as if in heaven.

"Ash, how are we gonna get back?"

"Hmmm. We'll let Clemont and Bonnie find us."

Because you're sweet and lovely girl, I love you,

Because you're sweet and lovely girl, it's true.

Emperor SS: First of all, I apologise to anyone who might have gotten impatient here. Writing these things take loads of time, people. As the previous one-shots, this was also inspired by a super-popular song by my favourite band. I sincerely hope you guys dig it. Please lemme know how much you liked (or hated!) this one in the reviews. Ciao!