Well, all you guys did ask for Serena's confession to be uninterrupted, right? :p I'm kidding, that was the plan from the start.

I wanna thank That'sMe33, Pokemonmeat, pokemon fan 1991, FantasyLover88, LittleLitten, ultimateCCC, Epicocity, Anondamoose, DoodleRose, and Nexxus176 for reviewing since last time! This time, we're going to take a bit of a closer look at something. I hope it comes across well! I've had this scene in mind since I started writing the story, and it should answer a question from quite a few chapters ago!

Chapter 10: The Key in the Past!

It was oddly quiet at breakfast that morning. The kind of quiet that almost put Ash off his breakfast.

Serena was quiet the entire meal, and when Bonnie asked when they were going to leave and continue towards Snowbelle City, the performer excused herself, saying she felt bad, and went back to the room to lay down.

Ash had gone to the battlefield for training, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get his mind off of Serena. Seeing her so downcast made him worried. She was usually the brightest and happiest of the entire group.

"Pika!"

Ash looked down at his partners, all staring at him as he zoned out during training. "Sorry, guys… I guess I'm just worried about Serena. She really didn't seem like herself this morning."

"Pikapi, Pipika pipikachu!" The rest of Ash's Pokémon nodded in agreement.

Ash nodded as well. "Right! It's obvious! I'll just go ask her what's the matter and see if I can help!"

And that's what brought him before the locked door of the room in the Pokémon Center. He knocked a few times before he heard a peep from the other side.

"...yes?" Serena's voice was soft and timid, making Ash's heart jump. "Who is it?"

"It's me," he said, the confidence he displayed before Pikachu and the others fading. "I… Serena, it's not like you to close yourself off like this. I can tell something's up. What's wrong?"

There was a moment of silence before there was some shuffling on the other side of the door as the performer opened the door to Ash. She's not wearing her hat, her red fedora sitting on the bed behind her. Serena's expression is entirely downcast, her red, puffy eyes not rising at all to meet Ash's once the door is opened. She says nothing to him, despite her lip quivering, trying to find the words to express what she's feeling.

Ash looked at her, so sad and broken, and felt his own heart sink. He reached out to her, trying to put his hand on her shoulder. Serena responded by taking a step back, causing Ash to pause in confusion.

"Serena…?"

She looked up at him when he said her name, her eyes still watering. "Ash…"

Ash looked around her, trying to see some clue as to why she was acting this way. Behind her, on the bed, covered sloppily by her fedora were some photographs. Ash frowned. "...are those pictures making you sad, Serena?"

"It's… they're…" Serena mumbled, struggling with her words.

Ash walked past her and picked up the fedora to get a better look at the pictures, and he let out a gasp.

They were pictures of him. Four pictures, in total. He recognized all of them, of course. The time he and Misty danced at the Maiden's Peak festival, and that time he tried to cheer up May after she lost in Hoenn's Grand Festival. A watermelon in the water of the photo of him and Dawn reminded him that it was close to Michina when this particular one was taken, and the last was when he and Iris had gone to watch a football game in Nimbasa City.

Suddenly Ash felt nervous. He looked up to Serena and swallowed. "I… these pictures… what… why do you have them?"

As Serena stood formulating her words, Bonnie stepped into the doorway. "Serena, I was so worried! You were all couped up-"

And at that moment, Clemont put a hand over her mouth and stepped backwards with her. "Bonnie… I think we may be intruding on something…"

"As for where I got the pictures, Ash Ketchum," Serena spat the last two words at him, making Ash flinch, "someone sent them to me in a letter. But I have a question for you."

Ash swallowed and played with the red fedora in his hands nervously. "W-What's the question?"

"Who are these girls?" she asked. "Who are they to you?"

Ash sighed, relaxing a little. "Oh, is that all? These girls are my friends, Serena!" he said, almost cheerfully.

"Just your friends?" she fired back pointedly. "None of them were… more than that?"

Ash furrowed his brow. "More than a friend?"

"Did any of them like you, Ash?" She asked again.

He shrugged. "I mean, Misty and I fought a bunch, and Iris kept calling me a little kid, but yeah, they like me. We're all friends."

"Are any of them extra special to you?" This question came out more pained as Serena stepped closer to him.

"Extra…?" Ash scratched the back of his head. "You've lost me, Serena. I don't understand."

"Exactly!" Serena shouted at him. Even Clemont began to gasp at Serena's behavior. The honey-blonde shook her head. "You travelled with all of these girls. You spent so much time with them… so much time with me… and you never understood how any of us felt, for even a second!"

Ash stepped back. "I didn't understand?" he parroted. "I really don't understand what's happening now…"

"You'll never understand! Not how any of them felt, or how I feel!" Serena's hand went to her chest, and grasped the end of the blue ribbon she wore. She yanked hard on it, unravelling it from around her neck before throwing it in Ash's face. "You're hopeless!"

And with those words, Serena turned her back on Ash and ran from the room, pushing past Clemont and Bonnie.

"Serena! Wait!" Ash cried, reaching out for her, the girl's fedora still in her hands as the ribbon fell to the ground. He reached down and picked the ribbon up. "What happened?"

"What happened?" Bonnie shouted in disbelief as Dedenne poked his head out of the pochette. "You're telling me you still don't get it?"

Clemont put his hands on his younger sister's shoulders. "H-hey now, that's enough, Bonnie, I don't think Ash needs to hear this-"

"If no one tells him, I don't think he'll ever get it!" the small girl snapped back. "Ash, you're a blockhead for not understanding!" She looked up at Clemont. "I'm going to try and find Serena. You stay here and make sure he doesn't make anything worse!"

"But Bonnie-!" The inventor tried to intervene, but Bonnie quickly slipped out of his grip and ran out the room, chasing in the direction Serena ran off in. Clemont turned around to see Ash stepping backwards before falling clumsily on the bed, falling on top of the pictures with Serena's hat and ribbon in his hands. "Ash, maybe we should go after them…?"

Ash looked at the items in his hands and shook his head. "...I dunno if that'd help things, Clemont.. I… don't even understand what's goin' on."

Clemont sat down on the bed next to him. "Well, it appears to me that Serena… is really upset that you don't really understand how she feels."

Ash nodded. "...I've kinda put that much together, yeah. But how does she feel? I mean, she's a really important friend to me."

"You two do have a history," the inventor mused. "After all, it's not often two friends from the years past just meet up with each other again."

"Serena was actually one of the very first friends I made…" he admitted.

Clemont blinked. "Come again? But I thought you two had only met that one time? You never mentioned anything about spending time with her back then."

Ash shook his head, sighing as he lay back on the bed, holding Serena's belongings close to him. "Well… it's true that we didn't really talk much beyond that time we already talked about, but I guess I never said why I was in the forest, looking for that Poliwag to begin with."

The Gym Leader frowned at Ash. "I guess you don't really talk about your past very much… we didn't even know about those girls you travelled with."

Ash let another sigh escape his mouth. "Well… back when I was a little kid, there weren't too many kids growing up in Pallet Town," he explained, closing his eyes as he spoke, trying to visualize the time. "The most popular was Professor Oak's grandson, a guy named Gary. He and I haven't always gotten along, and we weren't exactly friends back then…"

Ash Ketchum was in the woods, alone, hiking. He wore a red-and-yellow tank top and blue-jean shorts and an excited smile on his face.

But then, he was usually alone, in the woods. His mother was too busy running Pallet Town's only restaurant to look after him much, and as for friends… well, most of the children in Pallet preferred to spend their time with the young Gary Oak, grandson of the world-famous Professor Samuel Oak. Ash, himself, liked spending time at Gary's grandfather's laboratory, and he even had run into Gary a few times, though the brown-haired boy was usually somewhat standoffish.

And so, Ash was hiking in the woods, looking for a friend he could count on. A Pokémon.

Ash loved Pokémon with all his heart. He had found them in the woods around Pallet Town several times before, and while they didn't always trust him, they were very friendly once they got to know him. Today, he wasn't searching for any Pokémon in particular. He was just lonely and wanted to have fun.

Being lonely was something that Ash dealt with a lot. His mother was always very busy with work related to the restaurant, so there would be times, especially during the summer, when Ash would spend a great deal of time alone. It was for this reason - to assuage this loneliness - that Ash's mother signed him up for Professor Oak's Pokémon Summer Camp that year. Ash didn't mind it, much. There were tons of activities where he got to play with Pokémon, and even some where he got to battle with them!

There were lots of other children there, too, but Ash didn't really pay them much mind. None of them seemed that interested in him, and he was more interested in Pokémon, anyway.

It was getting late, though, and there was some free-time before the cafeteria opened for dinner, so Ash decided that he would go look for a Pokémon to play with. So he wandered away from camp and headed into the forest, alone.

It wasn't very far into the forest before Ash crossed a pretty rickety wooden bridge, looking at the water below and seeing a family of Poliwag swimming along. He called down to the Poliwag, waving at them. "Hey there! Do you guys wanna play?"

Most of the Poliwag looked up at him before diving back under the water, but one Poliwag decided to humor the human and hopped out of the river, up along the rocks until he landed before Ash. Ash smiled and slowly approached it. "Hello there, Poliwag," he said quietly, as to not spook the Tadpole Pokémon. "I hope you don't mind me getting this close." The bridge creaked under his feet, causing Poliwag to jump and begin to hop away. "Aww, Poliwag, come back!" he called after it.

The Poliwag stopped after Ash called and looked back at the boy, hopping a little. "Poli?" it asked.

"Hey, if you wanted to play tag, you should have asked!" he responded with a grin.

Laughing, he once again began following the hopping Poliwag through the forest. All the Pokémon he'd ever met were friendly, and this Poliwag as no exception. He hadn't really met many friendly people. His mom, maybe. Gary was as close to a friend he had, and even then, Gary usually used him as an example of what not to do.

Ash came to a stop as a shrill call of "M-Mommy!" from the bushes ahead of him. He furrowed his brow. "That wasn't Poliwag, right?"

He crawled through the bushes, calling out "Poliwag?" As he came through, he caught sight of a child he hadn't seen before, laying on the forest floor. She was a girl in a pink dress and a straw hat, with her face cringing shut as if she was worried someone would strike her. Ash could see where the tears had run down her cheeks, and he grew concerned. "Hey…" Ash asked, point to her. "Are you alright?"

The girl opened her bright blue eyes and looked up at him. She looked scared, like Ash had seen Pokémon who weren't used to humans. Ash gave her a smile and decided to try and break the tension. "Hi," he said, smiling. "I'm Ash! Who're you?" The girl continued looking at him, her mouth hanging open. Ash frowned. Usually this was when the Pokémon introduced itself to him. "Hey, what's wrong?"

The girl looked down at her knee. "I hurt… my leg…" she sniffled out.

Ash had come across injured Pokémon before, and he had remembered what his mother had told him to do. "Don't worry," he told her, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a blue handkerchief. His mother had taught him that applying pressure can help relieve pain slightly. He crawled closer to the girl in the straw hat. "See this?" he said, holding the handkerchief up. "This'll make it better."

He brought the handkerchief to her knee and tied the handkerchief tightly around it. The girl watched him quietly, her eyes moving to his gentle hands as he pulled the knot. "All done!" he said.

The straw hat girl tried to put her weight on her leg, but recoiled almost immediately. Ash nodded. In times like this, it helped to get the Pokémon's mind off the pain by doing something silly to distract them. He sat up and looked at her. "Now watch this!" He hovered his hands over her knee, moving them as though he was a wizard casting a spell. "Feel better, feel better, right away!"

The straw-hat girl looked at him, blinking a little. She tried to stand again, but once more her face flashed with the pain she felt. "It still hurts… I can't stand up…" she said, her sadness building, the tears in her eyes threatening to once again spill down her cheeks.

Ash stood up and, putting his hands on his hips, like he had seen his mother do when he felt like giving up. And he repeated her words. "Don't give up 'til it's over, 'kay?" He offered her his hand, saying "Come on" and smiling brightly. Pokémon usually responded to bright smiles like this, and this girl was no exception. She reached up towards him, and Ash took her hand, pulling her to her feet, putting an arm around her as he did. The girl looked at him, her eyes wide with surprise. Ash just grinned at her. "There you go!" he beamed at her. He felt pride well up inside him that she was able to stand up with his help.

Ash looked up and realized the sun was setting before he turned to the girl. "I think we should be getting back to the campsite, kay?" he said, tugging on her hand. "C'mon."

The girl said nothing as they walked hand in hand, Ash leading her back through the woods back towards summer camp.

Clemont nodded as Ash recounted the tale. "That's… very interesting, Ash. I think I might have learned something, listening to you."

Ash looked over to him. "What's that?"

"Whenever you described Serena in your story, you talked about her like she was a Pokémon," he said. "You said she was one of your first friends, but if you only think about her in terms you relate to your Pokémon, maybe it seems to her that you don't value your friendship with her the way she does."

Ash sat up, a scowl quickly growing on his face. "Hey, I care about my Pokémon more than anybody!"

Clemont gasped, as if the pieces were starting to come together. "Then, Ash… do you care about Serena more than anybody, too?"

Ash paused, himself, mulling that question over. "Do I?" He frowned. "Well… maybe her Mom cares about her more than I do, but I care about Serena a whole lot!" He said, starting to get more passionate as he spoke. "More than anyone else, even Calem! He wasn't there, cheering her on in the Showcases, or trying to teach her how to battle, or helping her find out just what she wanted to do! He just kept treating her like she belonged to him, when Serena really only belongs to herself!" He paused again, thinking about what he was saying. "Clemont…" he looked over at the inventor. "I bet Serena thinks I don't care about her… I mean, that explains it, right?"

Clemont nodded. "It is a decent hypothesis," he said.

Ash hopped off the bed and onto his feet. "Then we've gotta do something! We have to find her so I can tell her I care!"

Clemont stood and gave Ash a confident smile. "Right. We can't let her leave thinking you don't care about her. But there is are a few more questions I have." The Lumiose Gym Leader leaned over and picked up the four pictures Ash was just laying on. "...where did these pictures come from? And who sent them to Serena?"

Ash looked over them again as he clenched Serena's fedora and ribbon in his hands. "I don't know… but whoever it is, these go back to when I was just getting started as a trainer, back in the Kanto Region."

Clemont took the photos and slipped them into his pocket. "I'm starting to form a hypothesis as to where these came from… but right now, finding Serena is more important."

Ash pumped his fist. "Right! I'm gonna go find my Pokémon. I'll need their help, and then we'll chase after Serena!"

A cold wind blew through the trees, chilling the young blonde as she ran. But young Bonnie wasn't about to give up her chase, even if Squishy refused to do that cool 'turn-into-a-canine' thing and help her out. The green blob slept peacefully in her pochette while Bonnie followed the footprints Serena left behind as she ran away from the Pokémon Center.

"Serena? Where are you?" Bonnie called out. "Come back!" Dedenne cooed quietly from his spot in Bonnie's pochette as they searched.

But then, Bonnie found her.

Serena sat on a rock in the forest, holding her face in her hands as she sobbed softly. The sight of her friend so upset brought the little girl's heart low. "Serena…?" she asked as she drew closer.

Serena looked up at Bonnie, her eyes red from all the crying she had been doing recently. She sniffles before she speaks. "...he'll never get it. Ever."

Bonnie sat down on the rock next to her. That she knew was just a fact taken for granted now. "Well, he is a dumb boy," Bonnie responded bluntly. "You know dumb boys aren't always the first to pick up on this stuff. Even my brother doesn't have a clue, as smart as he is."

"When I thought it was just me," Serena murmured, "I guess I was okay with it. I guess there was hope that Ash would eventually see me differently… see me the same way I saw him…" She looked at Bonnie. "There were four other girls he traveled with. I've never met them, and I don't know how each of them feel about Ash… but neither does he. And if he's gone through this four other times… if each of those girls had the same crush on him that I have… then what hope do I have? He never noticed any of them. He'll never see me as…"

Bonnie put a hand on her older friend's shoulder. "C'mon, Serena, you know Ash cares about you!" she pleaded. "He's just really bad at words!"

Serena put her hand to her chest, feeling for the ribbon that was no longer there. "I… I don't know, Bonnie…" She felt unprotected without the ribbon there. Like it provided the same comfort she used to draw from her long hair, the same safety. "I don't think Ash is ever going to understand how I feel…"

The performer stood up. "I… I'm done."

Bonnie blinked. "You're done?"

"I can't follow Ash around anymore."

This declaration caused the young girl to gasp. "Serena, you don't mean that, right?"

She took a few steps forward, keeping her back turned to Bonnie. "I do. I can't go back and see Ash… It's just… too heartbreaking."

"But Serena, maybe we can explain it to him!" Bonnie jumped to her feet, Dedenne making the same arm-pumping gesture she did. "If he's too stupid to get it on his own-"

"I'm not talking to him again!" Serena said, stepping away. "You don't understand, Bonnie. This is the end! It's over!"

Bonnie felt her heart breaking. "Serena, but don't you always say-"

"I'm never saying that ever again! Don't follow me this time, Bonnie!" Serena shouted her words, still refusing to face the young girl. Tears began to flow from her cheeks once more as she fled further into the forest.

"Serena! Wait!" Bonnie called, her words echoing against the trees. But the performer didn't heed them as she ran further and further away from her friends.

Another chill wind blew, and Bonnie wrapped her arms around herself. Clearly talking to Serena wasn't going to work, so instead, Bonnie would head to the source. She turned around and ran back towards the Pokémon Center. Towards Ash.

"C'mon, everyone! Let's go together! Towards our next adventure!"

"Serena's out there missing, and it's my fault... I gotta find her..."

"Not so fast! Ash, you can't go before we talk! There's so much you don't understand!"

"Bonnie?! What do you need to tell me?"

"I've got to teach you the basics! The ABC's, of course!"

"Next time, Pokémon XY&Z: The ABC's of Love!"

"Everyone, go keep'em all!"