Snow Sick

Chapter 1: Lonely

A/N: I don't own anything.

The Kalos Queen had the be the best performer above all other performers. She had to always fight on, inspiring others to do so as well. She had to always wear a smile, even when her heart was broken. Even when she was in pain. Serena may not be Kalos Queen, but this was one lesson she learned perfectly. The cause of her ache was an obvious one, a certain black-haired boy to be more specific, and with each day the ache only seemed to worsen. The whole point on starting this journey was to meet Ash; however, Serena never expected to develop as strong of feelings for the future Pokemon Master that she did. She was very good at hiding them though. It was easy to hide them from Ash, since he was so oblivious that she could tell him at this second that she liked him and his response would be, "Of course, we're friends right?" and he would laugh it off completely unaware. Bonnie and Clement caught hints of her affections but neither thought the blushing and staring at Ash was anything more than a minor crush. Heck, Serena didn't know it was more than a crush. Not until now.

Three days ago…

"It's always like this," the honey-blonde girl thought as she walked behind the rest of the gang on their way to Snowbelle City. She felt her heart ache as she stared at the raven-haired pokemon trainer's back ahead of her. Said boy, known as Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, was chattering away with Clemont, the Lumiose City gym leader. Ash's famous partner Pikachu was relaxing on Ash's shoulder. Holding the blonde boy's hand was Clemont's little sister, Bonnie. Normally, a Dedenne would be on top of the younger kid's head; however, the cold weather caused both Dedenne and Squishy to retreat into Bonnie's yellow purse, hiding from the winter breeze. Serena couldn't fully tell what the group was saying due to her distance from them. She caught occasional tidbits, something about how to approach Ash's next gym battle in Snowbelle City.

"I'm still having a hard time choosing who to use…" Serena could faintly hear Ash admit to Clemont. All three were a few feet ahead of her, unaware that she had began falling behind. Serena's head was swirling with anxiety, and a bit of jealousy.

"Why am I jealous?" Serena whispered to herself, looking down at her feet as they buried one after another into the snow that had fallen in their path. "Of course he wouldn't ask me about stuff like that," the girl thought, mentally hitting herself for not knowing enough about battling. Raising her gaze to once again watch the future Pokemon Master's back, a bit of realization flooded into her mind.

"It will always be like this. I'll always be behind, watching his back as he keeps getting closer to his goal." Serena's chest tightened painfully. For a moment, she stopped walking, just staring at Ash's back walk away from her. "I'll be left behind." She knew that. She always knew that. This was just one of his many journeys that he had taken since he was 10. As the Kalos League began to become a reality, so did the painful truth that Ash would be leaving once it was over.

And not only that, Serena let her gaze shift from Ash to Clemont and Bonnie holding hands as they walked, "Those two will move on as well. This is their first journey, so they'll probably go explore other regions for Clemont to become an expert inventor." By now, the gang was a great distance from Serena, so caught up in their debate on which pokemon to use that the honey-blonde was forgotten. It wasn't until Pikachu glanced back did someone notice Serena had stopped a great distance back.

"Pika? Pikachu!" Pikachu tapped Ash's cheek, then pointed behind the group at Serena, who seemed frozen in place.

"Huh? What is it, Pikachu?" Ash replied to his buddy, turning to look back. Immediately, he saw Serena's frozen figure, stopped relatively far from everyone else. "Serena?" The pokemon trainer called out, worry plastered on his faced. Everyone else stopped talking as well, turning to look in the direction of the pokemon performer.

"Serena? Serena!" Ash called out as he backtracked to towards the girl; however, what plagued her mind seemed to block out the outside world. Clemont and Bonnie were close behind Ash, all rushing to their friend extremely distraught. Even the two in Bonnie's purse had peeked out, wondering what the commotion was about. Crunching footsteps was now the only noise heard as they all rushed to their friends side.

"I'll be alone." Serena kept repeating over and over again in her head. Suddenly, her body began to heat up terribly. Pain radiated in both her head and chest as she stood still, watching her friends finally notice she was not with them. "I'll be all alone. What will I do?" Her face was hot, her chest was tight. The pain was unbearable; Serena felt like at any moment, her heart would burst. "Why does it hurt so much? Something's wrong…" As the gang finally caught up to the poor girl, her mind suddenly shut off, and everything was engulfed in darkness. Her legs gave out, her body gave out, and she plummeted into the freezing snow that had engulfed her feet. Her beautiful cerulean eyes lost their sparkle.

"Serena!" The group shouted, horrified. As Ash finally caught up to his best friend, he saw her face was beat red, and she was breathing heavily. Before he had a moment to process what was happening, the girl was face first in the snow with no sign of movement. Clemont and Bonnie froze in shock as they watched their beloved friend faint; however, Ash didn't stop for a second. If anything, something took over his mind and he was bending down next to his friend in a flash. His hazel eyes were wide, shimmering as tears glazed over them.

"Serena!" He grabbed her coat-covered shoulders and turned her over, shaking her forcefully in hopes she'll reawaken.

"Pika! Pika-pi!" Pikachu cried on Ash's shaking shoulder. Time caught up to Bonnie and Clemont as they both leapt forward, approaching the duo. "We need to get her to a doctor!" Clemont yelled, taking note of Serena's red and sweaty complexion. Before either sibling had a chance to help lift their female friend, she was in Ash's arms and he was gone, running as fast as his feet could take him towards the city. Clemont and Bonnie weren't far behind, the sweet girl crying softly in confusion as she tried to keep up. For once, Clemont was ahead. No one can remember how they found the closest hospital in their state of mind.

"Please help!" Ash cried out as he rushed through the glass doors. In a flash, there were nurses and a doctor all around him, pulling the unconscious performer from his hands. It wasn't until she was out of them that Ash registered how cold they were. Moment to moment, Ash had trouble registering what was happening. One moment she was in his arms, next she was pulled away and on a stretcher heading through another set of glass doors. The terrified boy tried to follow behind, but multiple nurses held him back.

"You can't go in!" They kept yelling, struggling to hold him still. Ash kept fighting however, thoughts of nothing but Serena ricocheting in his head. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he stopped. His head whipped around to look at the gym leader.

"Ash, stop!" Clemont begged, panting slightly from the sprint. Bonnie was behind him, crying softly.

"But-" Ash began, finally taking a breath of air.

"Let them help her! The best thing we can do is wait out here," Clemont explained, squeezing Ash's shoulder in a gesture of comfort. Ash's eyes fell to the floor, nodding slightly.

"We'll help her," A nurse spoke gently before walking through the doors in the direction Serena went.

Clemont nodded, pulling Ash's shoulder towards the waiting room. Time passed, now with them all sitting in uncomfortably hard chairs waiting anxiously.

"Why?" Ash kept asking himself over and over, "Why is this happening?" Tears fell from his eyes as he stared at the ground, his face hidden by the bill of his red cap. Pikachu's eyes were saddened as well, though he tried nuzzling his trainer's cheek in hopes of cheering him up.

"How could I not notice she was sick..?" Ash whispered to Pikachu, who in turn mumbled, "Pi…"

I HAVE NOT WRITTEN ANYTHING IN CLOSE TO FIVE YEARS lol Don't hate meeeeee. I don't know where I'll go with this.

But they're so cute, I wanted to write about them. =^_^= R&R!

-Alice