Misty and Alex entered the tent together and walked to their respective beds. As Misty's bed was beside Serena's, she noticed those hairpins on Serena's hair.

"Pretty hairpins, Serena." Misty complimented.

Serena blushed. "Thanks." She said before removing those hairpins from her bangs and carefully keeping them inside her backpack. She then layed down on her bed wishing everyone good night.

Next day, as planned, the crew went to the city's aquarium. As allowed by Professor Oak, they could roam around the aquarium freely but return to the main exit by 3 p.m.

Our four friends reached the big water tank which had fish pokemon in it like goldeen, seaking, magikarp, gyarados and others. Misty, who completely adored them, didn't stop screaming how pretty and cute the pokemon were, much to the embarrassment of the other three as many people stared at them due to Misty's screams.

Next they went to the tank of those water type who could live on land as well. There were starmie, staryu, psyduck, golduck, squirtle and other pokemon inside the transparent tank. Here also, Misty's screams didn't stop. She kept on blurring almost every detail she knew about the pokemon she saw.

"She sure does love water pokemon." Alex said.

"Yes. Too much." Ash said.

"Their gym specializes in water types too." Serena added.

"She's one of the gym leaders of the Cerulean gym, I know." Alex said.

"Hey, what's that?" Ash asked pointing towards a medium sized poster on the wall. The headline was 'Swimming with pokemon.'

The three of them walked near that poster, leaving Misty to continue her compliments for the pokemon.

Serena read from the poster, " 'Participate in our event and get a chance to swim with our water pokemon inside their tanks.' "

"Interesting." Ash commented. "Okay, I wanna do it!"

"Me too!" Alex exclaimed.

"I'm in as well." Serena said.

Misty walked towards them and as expected, she counted herself in too with a huge smile on her face.

Our four friends reached the huge tank which was used for the event. There were many people inside the water tank, wearing oxygen masks and swimming flippers, swimming and playing with the several water pokemon inside the tank.

"Excuse me, are you interested in joining our event?" A man wearing the aquarium's uniform walked towards them and asked.

"Yes." Ash replied.

"Please, change into our swimming costumes before going in. The changing room is that way." The man said.

"I'm first!" Alex said and ran our of the changing room wearing his blue swimming costumes and flippers. He adjusted the oxygen mask on his mouth and jumped in the tank.

Ash wearing his blue costume followed Alex. Serena and Misty, wearing the pink girls' costume, took a dive in too.

There were small and big water pokemon inside. From little horsea to big Gyarados.

And the whole time, Serena maintained her close distance from Ash as usual.

Time skip~ 3 p.m. Time to return back to the campsite!

"That was fun, wasn't it?" Ash, walking with his three friends towards the exit, asked. "We stayed more than a whole hour inside that tank."

"Yes. I enjoyed it too much!" Misty added.

Serena wasn't really talking so Ash asked her, "Serena? Are you okay?"

Serena looked at Ash. "I ain't felling quite well." She said and continued walking.

"What happened?" Misty asked.

"I didn't notice it but staying inside water for that long is making my head ache." Serena explained.

"But you were all fine when we were inside water, Serena." Alex said.

"Yeah. But as soon as I took a step out of the tank I started feeling sick." Serena said.

"Take a good rest when we return back to campsite, okay?" Ash said.

"Sure." Serena said.

They reached the exit and saw the others were there already. Seeing that everyone is here, professor Oak spoke up, "Come let's return back."

The crew marched towards the mountain and started climbing up. Serena's face was down the whole time.

Ash who was walking beside Serena looked tensed and asked, "Are you really feeling alright?"

Serena looked at Ash. "I-I'm fine." She said.

"Liar." Ash spoke up. "Your face is all sweaty. You are 100% not fine." Ash said and took out his handkerchief from his jeans pocket and handed it over to Serena.

Serena took it and wiped the sweat from her forehead and neck. "Thanks." She said. She then realized that the handkerchief seemed familiar.

Wait, what? This is..

It was that handkerchief which Ash tied on Serena's hurt knee back when they were kids. The same handkerchief which Serena cherished for all these years and which she returned back to Ash when beginning her journey with Ash, Bonnie and Clemont.

"You have it with you?" Serena asked and looked at Ash.

"I have this with me since we separated ways. I haven't kept it away from my eyes since then, Serena." Ash replied.

That made Serena blush. She looked away from Ash right at the other second.

~To be continued~

Yay! This chapter was long! Yay, yay!

Oh no, I'm being childish again~~

Sorry for the wait, guys! I worked hard to make this chapter as long as I could. Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading!