Chapter 23: It's not a miracle...
Yesterday
"Do you want to take a holiday?" Ash asked.
Serena looked surprised and then smiled. "That sounds lovely!" she then tilted her head. "But where to?"
Ash grinned. He thought back to the semifinal round of the Indigo League, and what the girl Stephanie had said to him.
"I know just the place!"
Today
"Happy birthday, Serena!"
Ash showed Serena onto the luxury liner that would be taking them to their next adventure, which, as the couple hoped, would be a lot more laid back than their previous two years together, in which Ash had faced two huge league tournaments, an elite four and the Kanto's champion in order to take his place, and Serena, who won a Kalos Master Class, ended the Kanto grand festival in the semifinals, and managed to advocate showcases to the rest of the world.
And now, the two of them were headed towards the Alola region - sight of their next, sightseeing adventure.
"Ash, this is a beautiful boat!" Serena exclaimed, looking around from the top deck.
Ash clearly agreed, also quite relieved that she liked it. Boat rides weren't exactly cheap, after all. But more than that, it was because something else was on his mind.
It gnawed at his mind, making his stomach feel queasy. Unfortunately for him, it didn't take long for his girlfriend to notice. "Ash, what's the matter?" she asked.
"Oh, it's nothing, just seasickness." he said hurriedly, but it didn't sit right with Serena, who continued to watch him, concernedly.
"That's quite unlike you, sweetie..." she mentioned, wrapping her arms around him. Ash turned to her and beamed. However, the feeling never went away, though he tried his best to come across as contented.
After about an hour of wandering the ship's interior, Serena felt slightly unnerved. "This place... There's barely anyone here. I wonder what's up?"
Ash looked around. "You're right. But, I can't really complain. It's peaceful, in a way." Serena couldn't argue with that, and instead sighed.
"Ash, I can tell something's on your mind. You're not acting yourself." Serena questioned.
"I, uh... I don't know. Really." he said nervously. "But Serena, can I ask you something?"
She leaned in intently. "Yeah, what is it?"
Ash hesitated slightly before beginning. "Well... I was wondering... After I beat Red, my mom called me up and told me that champions get a prize money gift, plus a villa of their choosing, so I was wondering..."
He took a deep breath, and continued. "D-do you want to live with me in Kanto?"
Serena was starstruck. "Oh my goodness Ash... You don't have to look so worried! I'd love to live with you!" she beamed, kissing him on the lips. "Save for being the best performer I can be... You, Ash Ketchum, are my goal!"
Ash tried not to start crying from the relief. In actuality, this wasn't what was on his mind but Serena's acceptance made him feel as though a weight had been lifted, putting him at ease around her. He returned the kiss, and broke away with a smile on his face. "Serena, you mean the world to me, you know that?"
However, the smile didn't last long, and he frowned. "Boy, I am hungry. How about you?"
Serena tilted her head. "Now that you mention it..."
Ash ran over to a map, printed casually on a wall. "So it says we're here, which means the ship's canteen is... Oh, back up on the top deck. How about we buy something?"
Serena nodded, following him out into the open ."Okay, you find us a table and I'll order, I guess." he told her.
Serena complied, leaving Ash by the counter to buy something. He smiled at the bartender. "Hey, can I get us some ramen noodles with two, uh, cocktails?"
The bartender, in a dull tuxedo, nodded, though his eyes and head was covered by a top hat and sunglasses. It was only natural - even Ash himself was wearing a suit.
The bartender's voice was strangely young. "You got it pal. Two of our specialty cocktails, and some ramen, coming right up!" he said, giving Ash a massive grin.
"Thanks a lot!" Ash said, grinning back. "Oh, and uh... I'm gonna do it. Get the others."
Serena watched Ash walk over to her table in the open air. She had picked a breathtaking spot - the sun was out and shining brightly above them, as several wingull sauntered overhead chirruping happily which made Ash seem pleased as well. The fresh air from the sea lingered around the boat; a refreshing taste in their lungs.
The two spoke casually, about the region, pokemon, et cetera, until the meal came over.
"Enjoy!" The waitress exclaimed, winking at the couple. Serena didn't seem to notice the waitress's odd enthusiasm, thus the two of them ate, while the people who were previously sat down all seemed to leave the room one by one, leaving them all alone.
Serena smiled at Ash. "This boat sure has such a romantic atmosphere, don't you think?"
"That's why I chose it, beautiful." Ash smirked, getting a blush out of Serena. He sipped his cocktail. "Wow, this is good!" He exclaimed loudly. "Thank goodness I'm finally able to try some."
Serena giggled. "You're something else, aren't you?"
"If I am, I'm glad you're here to sort me out." Ash chuckled. He raised his glass. "I've never made a toast before, but allow me to do so now." He said, putting on a mocked posh accent. "To the most beautiful, thoughtful and caring girl in the world, and the dense idiot whose life she brought perfection into."
She clinked her glass against his while laughing. "You're so silly, Ash."
When she caught her breath back from the laughter, she spoke. "Also, to the bravest, kindest person, who decided to give this girl the best life ever."
Suddenly, Serena felt a lurch, and noticed the ferry come to a halt in the middle of the ocean. "Hang on, the boats not moving. What happened?"
Ash, however, didn't answer and instead took another gulp of alcohol. "Serena, I have something I need to say."
Now the girl was totally confused, and worried. What was going on..?
Ash gazed into her eyes; they were big and dazzling. He felt himself melt into her gaze, one of a now adult woman, but he shook off this infatuation, if only to have it replaced by a burning passion.
"Serena, the day I first met you, I hadn't realised it then, but it certainly was the best day of my life. And I myself am the luckiest man to have something like this. Your personality, attitude and everything about you is something to look up to, and I hope that I can spend the rest of my life by your side."
Serena's eyes widened as she smiled at him. "That means so much to me Ash... I will, I'll happily spend my life together with you."
Ash stood up, and with one hand in his pocket, his grip tightened around a box in his pocket. This was it. Do or die.
"Then in that case..." he muttered;
He took a step away from the table, and pulled the box from out of his pocket, prising it open to reveal an engagement ring, glistening gold with a diamond that caught the beautiful sunlight. Ash let his pokemon, his five Kalos native pokemon and Pikachu as well burst out of their pokeballs, each of them goading the young man on.
Ash bent down onto one knee, presenting the ring to his love in front of him.
At that very moment, the heart of the honey-blonde haired, Kalos raised girl, skipped a beat. Tears rolled uncontrollably out of her eyes and onto the ship deck. Serena's mouth went dry, as the perfect scene in front of her was just too good to be true. Yet, the source of her overwhelming heartache was still not finished with speaking.
"Life has never been more perfect when I'm around you. I feel like I can take on anything. You were the reason I am Kanto's champion now. I owe everything to you, so I will do whatever I can to make it up to you, if you'd let me.
So Serena, will you... Will you marry me..?"
The girl almost collapsed, but her pokemon let themselves out, as they gave her a group hug. Those five creatures who Serena befriended felt her love, affection and happiness, and were so happy that she could finally have what she always wanted - the boy who saved her, and taught her compassion, friendship and courage, all those many years ago.
Serena flashed back to their adventures together, but also, she remembered their time in summer camp twelve years ago.
"Ash!"
"Serena!"
A young Ash Ketchum ran quickly over to a young Serena Yvonne, and grinned. "I found you! Hey, look! I made a friend!"
With that, he pointed at a butterfree who was on his head.
Serena smiled. "Yeah! She's the cutest!"
Butterfree buzzed happily, and fluttered over them both. "So what do you wanna do? There's still a lot of free time before we all get together for dinner."
Serena thought about it. "Well, there was this kid, I think his name was Go, and he kept talking about finding Mew, so do you wanna look around for it?"
Ash looked thrilled. "That's an awesome idea! Let's go!" he grabbed her hand, causing the girl to blush heavily, and the two, with a wild butterfree in playful pursuit ran towards the mountains.
He had been the one to make her brave. To make her love pokemon rather than fear them. But he also brought adventure, and joy into her life, and she knew she'd be forever grateful.
"Ash..." she sobbed through her joyous smile. "Yes, yes! I will!"
Ash moved closer to her and kissed her on the lips. "Serena, I'll never be able to tell you just how much I love you..."
She didn't say a word, just wiped away her tears and continued to pour her soul into the kiss.
The pokemon behind them were ecstatic, but Ash broke away after several passionate seconds, and he took Serena's hand. "I have to show you something. Let's go!"
Her face was red, sweat dripping from the exhilaration, yet she followed him, bliss evident in her face.
Ash opened a door and stepped back. "After you, my love."
The last thing Serena had been expecting, was to walk inside and see a huge group of her dearest friends. Yet, when she walked in that was exactly what she faced.
Bonnie, Clemont, Tierno, Shauna, Trevor, Aria, Mairin, May and her and Ash's mothers, as well as eight or so other people staring back at them, all dressed up in suits and dresses.
Ash sidled over to Serena. "Surprise..!" he whispered.
Serena nearly broke down crying right then and there, but she stopped herself, though tears still continued to stream from her eyes.
Bonnie was the first to go up to her. "Serenaaa! I've missed you!" she shouted, giving her a hug.
Clemont followed closely behind her, smiling kindly. "Congratulations, you two! Bonnie always told me there was something there, but this is just so nice to see."
As it turns out, Ash had planned this party all along.
The reason why the boat stopped was so that Ash's friend Cilan could steer it off course, to Kalos, where Alain and Professor Sycamore was setting up their wedding.
Ash had invited his old traveling friends, Misty, Brock, Tracy, May, Max, Dawn, Iris and Cilan, as well as Serena's friends, who were all on the boat.
Currently, Serena was catching up with everyone they knew, while Ash was... Also catching up with his friends, in the form of being punched playfully in the back of the head by Iris, Brock grabbing him into a bear hug, and being laughed at hard by Dawn, Max and Misty.
May, however, was jovial. "Oh my goodness Ash!" she squealed. "I was so sceptical you could propose like a normal boyfriend, but I'm so happy for youuuu!"
Ash groaned. "Can you not talk about me like I'm some sorta freak?"
May ignored him, as Dawn took over. "I've never met this girl before, but she looks absolutely perfect for you!"
Iris on the other hand guffawed. "No, she looks too good for you! She's clean, well behaved, girly..."
Ash facepalmed, beaming hugely. "Yeah, she is too good. I'm a lucky guy..."
May hugged him again. "I've never seen you so lovestruck, Ash!" she teased.
Her brother, Max, seemed cynical. "Yeah, do it more so that everyone can make fun of you." he joked.
Ash tilted his head, unconcerned about about the teasing. "Oh yeah, we need to catch up! How have you all been doing?"
Brock was happily married to a woman he met on a study trip to the Alola region. He asked her out immediately after noticing her, and apart from watching him receive a swift poison jab from a skeptical Croagunk, she happily accepted the date invitation, absolutely baffling the blue frog. Several weeks later, and you have both of them, wedding rings on their fingers, living and working together, though they had a quick honeymoon through Kalos.
The woman told Ash that she was an "island kahuna" who governs an "island challenge". Ash immediately got excited when she explained what island challenges were, which made Brock and the others laugh, probably as they all expected it from him.
As for himself, he was a fully fledged Pokemon doctor and he had his own clinic open, however in his free time he worked towards being a pokemon breeder.
Misty had given up on the gym after Ash beat her, and instead she had went to the Kalos region to get a mega stone for her Gyarados. She was currently challenging the Battle Frontier before Ash called her over.
Tracey still worked alongside professor Oak, but he had been transferred to the Kalos region to collect sketches on their native pokemon, where he traveled with Misty for a while until she went back home. Ash couldn't quite work out why their was a blush on his and Misty's face as he mentioned that fact.
May had been inspired by Ash to have gone for one last fresh start in her home region. So far she had gotten five ribbons, and was waiting for the grand festival to start.
Dawn was already Sinnoh's top coordinator - after losing a close shave against May in Johto's grand festival semifinals, she decided to head home and try her hand at Sinnoh's contests, and she won the grand festival. Ash had called her while she was in Unova, advocating for the addition of Pokémon Contests in that region as well.
Cilan was an S rank connoisseur and quite proud of it, too. He had made a lot of money working in his own firm, so he decided to retire early and instead pursue his many, many interests. As it turns out, boating was one of them, which is why he was the one who actually suggested Ash take Serena out on a ferry ride, though he never expected him to want to propose to her there.
Iris had just beaten the Unova League, with the help of her newly evolved Haxorus, Hydreigon, Garchomp and Dragonite, as well as Emolga and Excadrill; she secretly credited Ash with helping her to learn how to switch her battling strategy, and thus when she faced Georgia she routinely used the battlefield to stop Ice types. However, she rued Kalos because of its large population of Fairy types, and vowed never to go there. Instead, she was ready to fight Alder, just needed to get past Caitlin of the Elite Four.
Bonnie had turned 10 only a few months ago, and she was already on the move catching pokemon with Dedenne after Clemont had given her pokeball for Bonnie's birthday. She vowed to meet Squishy again, but as for her dream - she didn't know yet. However, she had caught a Litleo and a Scatterbug.
"Max, how about you?" Ash asked eagerly. "You're ten now, right? Have you started traveling?"
Max thumped his chest proudly. "Eleven, actually. And you won't believe this, but check this out."
He grabbed three pokeballs and lobbed them into the air.
Ash's eyes widened when he saw what came out of them. "Holy Arceus!"
Jirachi and Ralts hovered by Max's side, and on his left, with a leafy arm around Max's shoulder, was a Grovyle.
Ash pointed, impressed. "Are they the same ones that you befriended while traveling with us?"
Max nodded. "The very ones. I went immediately back to the forest I met Ralts the second I turned ten and May gave me a set of pokeballs. It took about a day of wandering with only Grovyle here, when he was just a Treeko I got from professor Birch, but I found him eventually and then after that, I went to Star Cave and long story short, Jirachi was awake and still recognised me, so there you have it."
Ash grinned. "I'm happy for you, buddy."
"Yeah, and I've got five badges, now that I've beaten Dad. Soon, I'll win the Hoenn League, win against Steven, and then we can have the battle you promised all those years ago!"
He stuck out his fist for a fist-bump, which Ash did. "You're on, Max!"
After a party, the boat landed at Lumiose Pier, where Alain and Sycamore were waiting. They greeted each other, and the professor led them all to a hotel he had booked for everyone.
Ash got changed into his pyjamas, and collapsed onto the bed, completely shattered. "Today's been really hectic." he remarked.
Serena beamed and lay on top of him. "Oh, it's been the best day of my life."
Ash grinned and pulled her closer into a hug. "Best day of your life so far, sweetheart."
Serena blushed. "Ash, I love you so much."
"I love you too, Serena."