Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. All Characters are the property of Nintendo, and this is a fanfiction purely made for fun and non-profit.

Chapter 2

"Dropped keys and promises"

It was about quarter to six when the group finally entered the gates of Starview Town. "Wow that path took alot longer than I thought it would" panted Clemont. Normally at this point he would expect his younger sibling to insult him for being a baby, but to his surprise even his energetic sister looked run down from the journey. "It seemed so close when we first saw it..." Bonnie signed. "You said it" Serena also said panting slightly. The only member of the group not affected by the long walk was Ash. The thousands of miles he'd logged in his previous journeys had his body in top shape and more than used to walks of this length by now. "Let's go get some rooms at the pokemon center" he smiled as he noticed the tired looks on his friends faces. "I gotta be a little more considerate to them" he thought to himself. "It's easy to forget that they aren't used to this kind of travel yet."

The group began to walk down the sidewalk towards the pokemon center. As they passed a couple of the botiques the sight of the clothes on display seemed to give Serena a sudden burst of energy. "So cute!" she exclaimed as she stared at the various dresses on display in the window. Unfortunately she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and tripped on a small decorative plant on the sidewalk. She tried to catch herself, even going so far as to attempt a small twirl to regain her balance and keep from falling. The efforts were all in vain, she was on a painful and embarassing trip to the concrete. She closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable pain to befall her, but it never came. In fact the ground itself never came, it was like time had stopped and she was suspended in mid air. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked up saw why.

Even though she wasn't paying attention, a certain raven-haired trainer was. He saw Serena stumble on the plant and was able to catch her on the way down before she hit the ground. He now stood there holding her in his arms, her head was resting on his shoulder and her legs draped over his other arm. He breathed as sigh of relief and looked down and smiled as she finally opened her eyes and looked back up at him, amazed that he was able to catch her so fast. "You ok Serena?" he asked as he looked down to her now blushing face. "Y-Yeah..." she managed to squeak out before also managing to stammer out "t-thanks Ash." She was fighting the uncontrollable urge to lean up and kiss him on the cheek to thank him for saving her, but before she could Ash spoke to her again. "Just be a little more careful ok?" he said softly as held her in his arms for what seemed like hours, taking in every bit he could of her in that moment. "She smells really nice" he thought as the scent of flowers filled him.

The moment finally ended as Bonnie came running up to the two with a huge smile on her face and sparkles in her eyes. "Wow Ash!" she exclaimed "how'd you do that? That was so fast!" she praised him. Ash chuckled as gently set Serena back on her feet, but lingered a little bit before finally removing his other hand from the small of her back- an action that didn't go unnoticed by Serena. "Heh-heh I guess all that ninja training with Frogadier really payed off" he said as he looked over to see Serena still blushing at him. "C-Come on let's get to the pokemon center!" he stammered and dashed away, embarassed by all the praise that Bonnie was pouring on him. Clemont caught up with him while Bonnie stood there and looked at Serena with a mischievous smile on her face. "w-what is it Bonnie?" Serena stammered, knowing what was most likely gonna come from the seven-year old next. "You know what" she said devilishly "Your knight in shining armor came to your rescue again, and you were loving every minute of it" she teased. "Are you saying I fell on purpose?!" Serena snapped back, hoping to end the conversation before Bonnie got going again. "No I think you tripped on accident" she said unfazed by Serena. "But after Ash caught you I saw the look you were giving him as he held you" she squealed. "If you had it your way, you would still be in his arms as he carried you the pokemon center!" Bonnie yelled with stars in her eyes as she pictured her two best friends as a couple. Serena just sighed "alright you win" she said with a defeated tone. " I was content in his strong arms, can we please drop it now Bonnie?" hoping that telling her what should wanted to hear would finally put an end to the conversation. "Serena.." Bonnie Said sadly, realizing she had upset her best friend. "Maybe Clemont is right.." she thought sadly. "Maybe they do have to figure it out on their own." She quickly perked up and grabbed Serena's hand with a look of "I'm sorry" on her face, to which Serena returned her smiled and the ran to catch up to the boys as they entered the pokemon center.

As the group looked around they noticed that although it was quite a cute pokemon center, it wasn't a very big one. "I hope we can get rooms" Ash thought as they approached the desk. "Welcome to the Starview Pokemon Center!" exclaimed Nurse Joy with a smile on her face. "How can help you all?" "We're looking for a room for the four of us" Clemont said politely. "I'm sorry" Nurse Joy responded with a sad smile on her face. "I'm afraid we don't have any room of that size here" she said as she looked around the center to help convey why. "As you can see this is not a very large pokemon center, most of the people who come here are normally just shoppers" she said. "We don't get many trainers very often so we only have a few smaller rooms" she added. "Does that mean your out of rooms?" Clemont asked worriedly. "Lemme see what I have" Nurse Joy said as she checked the computer. "Your in luck!" she said. "I have two rooms available, one is a deluxe with two beds" she explained. "The other is our royal suite which features one large bed made of the finest materials and furnishings in Kalos!" she exclaimed. "It's really beautiful if I do say so myself" she bragged. "Oh-oh-oh!" jumped Bonnie. " I wanna stay in there so bad, please big brother?" she begged "Ne-ne!" seemed to join in begging Clemont as well. The gym leader to see both Ash and Serena give a nod and smile as if to say it was fine. "Alright-Alright" he said while scratching the back of his head with a smile. "We can take that room.." he said to her. "Yay-yay!" Bonnie shouted and began jumping around with Dedenne celebrating. Nurse Joy chuckled and handed Clemont the keys to both of the suites, one for the royal and one for the deluxe suites respectively. " You two sure your ok with this?" he asked. "Ash, Pikachu and I will just fine right?" as she turned to Ash, already looking forward to some alone time with him later that evening. Ash smiled and gave her a thumbs up. "Serena's right, we'll have a great time!" he said. "Pika!" Pikachu smiled also showing its agreement with the two. "Alright then" Clemont said as started walking over to Ash to him his key. While he was walking Bonnie and Dedenne crashed into him causing him to drop the keys to the floor. "Oops..sorry big brother" said said as she helped him back to his feet. "Its alright no harm done, just watch where your bouncing Bonnie" he chuckled as he scooped the keys back up and handed one to Ash. Unbeknownst to him he had accidently given Ash the key to the royal suite...

"So who's hungry?" Clemont asked as he took a seat in a nearby booth. "I think I'm gonna do some training before I eat" Ash said, drawing surprise from everyone. Normally Ash was the first one to suggest eating, but they shrugged it off thinking he wanted to give his pokemon some exercise since they had been cooped up in their pokeballs all day. "Ok thats sounds good Ash, I'll do some tinkering here until we eat" Clemont said as he setup his backpack and be pulling out various tools from it. "What about you Serena?" he asked in between grabbing tools. "I think I wanna go browse the shops!" she exclaimed at the prospect of getting some cute new outfits. "Wanna come with me Bonnie?" she asked hoping some girl time would be fun for the two of them. "Um actually Serena, I'm not really feeling up to shopping right now. I just kinda wanna play with Dedenne sorry" she said sadly, worried she may have upset her unoffical big sister. "It's ok Bonnie" she said cheerfully surprising the small girl. "You go have fun ok?" "Thanks Serena" Bonnie said as she hugged her, before walking over to Clemont. "Hey Clemont can Chespin come play with us?" she said hopefully. "Sure Bonnie that sounds like a great idea" he said as pulled a pokeball from his pocket releasing Chespin. "Chespin-Ches!" it shouted as Bonnie ran up and hugged it. "Now you three have fun and behave" as the three ran off and began playing. Serena meanwhile had given her pokemon to Nurse Joy for treatment and was walking back over to the booth as Ash was getting up to go outside. "I guess I'll go shopping by myself" she said immediately drawing a look from Ash. "Serena its going on seven o' clock and already dark out, are you sure you wanna go by yourself?" he said a look of worry on his face. "I promise I'll take you first thing tomorrow morning when we wake up" he added hoping she would agree. The idea of her going out after dark by herself, especially without Fennekin or Pancham really worried him, even though he hated talking to her like she was his daughter. "He's so sweet" she smiled in her head. "Going so far as to even promise to take me shopping."

As tempting as it was for her to take his offer, the excitement of the shops calling her was just too much to resist. "But Ash you hate shopping" she giggled. "Y-yeah but" before he could he could finish his sentence, Serena jumped in. "Don't worry Ash I'll be fine, I'm only going price shopping" she stated. "The real shopping won't be until tomorrow" she winked at him, hoping that would do the trick, but Ash still wasn't comforted by her words. "If you really wanna go that bad I'll take you now" he said with a genuine smile as he reached for his backpack. "He's so selfless" she gushed to herself but quickly stopped him. "Ash you already said you wanted to go train, I'll be fine I promise its just shopping" she said sweetly as she walked up to him and gave him a hug, trying to reassure him. "By the time your done training I'll already be back here waiting to have dinner with you" she whispered into his ear. "Alright..." he said with a defeated smile. "Just promise me you'll be safe" he added they broke the hug. "I promise" she said with smile and a small wave as she turned from him to walk out the front of the pokemon center. The scent of flowers once again filled him as watched her leave, giving her small wave as she walked out the front door of the pokemon center. He finally snapped out of the scent and turned to Pikachu. "Ready to rock buddy?" he asked the yellow mouse. "Pika!" the rodent cheered as the two made their out the back door of the pokemon center to the practice battlefield.

Serena walked down the sidewalk, entracned by the items in the shops windows. From the opposite side of the street, a man in a green uniform spotted her walking. "She's perfect" he mumbled to himself...