Serena: 20
Ash: 21
Serena's POV:
I walk in the woods. It's a beautiful summer day and a few wild Pokemon peeking curiously through the trees and bushes. It's warm and I'm wearing a pink summer dress and a straw hat. I have put my hair in a ponytail and signed them onto the blue silk ribbon, which always goes with me.
I smile slightly. That, and this forest, reminds me of memories. Memories from years ago. Memories of a boy I still think about every day.
Where is he right now? It's funny in itself because I am his home region Kanto. My manager sent me here to get inspiration for upcoming Performances. However, I have not seen him here and I have not dared to go to inquire about him.
I sweep the hair from my eyes and suddenly I see a tree and a square in front of me that looks familiar. The flashback of many years comes back strongly to my mind and fills my mind:
Flashback:
A little honey blonde-haired girl cries and screams at her mother. She has frightened the rumble of an adjacent bush, fallen and injured her knee. Rumble turned out to be just Poliwag, who had glanced at the girl and continued its journey, but the girl's knee hurts now and she can't get up.
Suddenly there is a rumble from the same bush again and the girl turns her eyes to it in fear. What if there became a bigger creature now? The girl closes her eyes in fear, but at the same time someone says, "Poliwag? Where did you go?" and a raven-black-haired boy emerges from the bush, looking at the girl sitting open in confusion.
"What are you doing here?" the boy asks the girl in confusion and the girl opens her eyes and looks at the boy in wonder. Then the boy points to himself and says, "My name is Ash. Who are you and what's the matter?"
"Serena," the girl says in a small voice. "And I hurt my knee"
The boy kneels next to the girl and says, "Oh no." Then he digs a light blue handkerchief from his pocket and says, "Here. This could help."
He wraps the handkerchief gently around the girl's knee and tightens it into a tight knot. "There," the boy says contentedly and the girl tries to stand up but can't.
"It still hurts!" she exclaims and looks desperate. The boy stands up and looks at the girl with determination. "Don't ever give up' til the very end," he says, extending his hand to the girl. "Come on, I'll help"
The girl grabs the boy's outstretched hand and lets the boy pull her up. She thud against the boy and then takes a step back.
She looks at the boy with wide eyes and the boy says, "See?" and flashes a wide tooth smile. He then points away from the square and says, "Come on, let's go back to camp," and reach out a hand to the girl again.
The girl grabs it and lets the boy lead her away from the square. She stares at the boy's messy, black hair and feels a little blush.
Together they walk out of the square and back to camp.
The flashback ends
The flashback ends and I glance at the square, smiling a little sadly. How scared me then was. I think had I even gotten back to camp if Ash hadn't come.
I'm stepping a few steps forward, and I'm so in my thoughts, I did not notice the root, which is in the ground before the trip over it.
I feel a disgusting pain in my ankle and I hear a disgusting crack when I fall to the ground and I also feel a sting in my palms when I took the land with them.
I lie on the ground for a moment and then twist to sit against the tree. I look at my palms. The ground has scratched small scratches on them, but they heal quickly and I don't have to worry very much about them.
The crash made my dress dirty, but I couldn't care less about it at the moment. Instead, I'm worried about my ankle and the creepy pain that comes from it.
I gather my courage, take a deep breath, and dare to look at my ankle. Seeing it, what happened to my knee a long time ago was small.
The ankle was bent in an unnatural position and crack.. well, I think the ankle is also broken (great, Serena, great, and that position doesn't tell you about it)
I straighten my legs and even that little movement causes immense pain in my ankle. Oh, crab. I bite my lips and feel tears streaming down my eyes. How the heck can I get out of here? I can not walk, and no one knows where I've gone. I also left my Pokemon in the Pokemon Center.
"Help! Someone, please help!" I cry desperately and wrap my arms around my body and hook my healthy leg so that the injured leg stays straight. "Come someone help!"
Someone.. help...
Suddenly a wild Pokemon jumps in front of me and I recognize it as Poliwag. It looks at me curiously and before it has time to disappear, I seize my opportunity.
"Hey, Poliwag," I say to it and try to keep my voice flat. It looks at me in wonder and gets a little closer. "I'm Serena and I hurt myself, would you be so kind, you could find help?" I explain to it and point to my ankle.
It looks at it and notices that it hurts me quite a bit. Its eyes spread even bigger as it realizes my situation and start talking quickly, "Poli poli wag. Poli wag wag poli wag poli" and I nod.
"That's right, my ankle hurts and I need help, I can't walk anywhere myself. Could you get it?" I ask and Poliwag nods resolutely. Then it disappears back into the bush where it came from and I sighed. I hope it manages to get someone to help me.
Ash's Pov:
"Doesn't this forest bring back memories, or what, Pikachu?" I say to my best friend sitting on my shoulder, but this shakes his head. I am confused for a moment until I remember. Oh, right, of course, Pikachu wasn't with me yet when I first came here. I laugh a little and then look around.
The forest looks at what the forest in general looks like. Trees, shrubs, and grass. I see a few wild Pokemon who look at me curiously for a moment, but then keep going.
I smile to myself and cross my arms behind my neck. The sun warms comfortably, on a beautiful summer day. I am wearing blue shorts as well as an orange T-shirt, red sneakers and a similar red cap that I have worn all my life.
It's nice to be at home sometimes. In the last few years, I have traveled almost incessantly and finally, I decided to take a vacation and return home say hello to my mother and all my friends here.
"Well, Pikachu, how does it feel to be in Kanto again after many years?" I ask my friend and this one says happily, "Pika!"
Yeah, I haven't been here in a few years. I just returned from Kalos, which I have studied with Professor Sycamore Greninjan and my connection between more detail. Before that, I was in Sinnoh and before that in Unova...
Kalos. It brings back memories in me of a certain girl I haven't seen in years. A little funny, because she lives in Kalos. But for some reason, our roads have not met and so we have not seen since.
However, I thought about her often over the years. Thinking about this, Pikachu looks at me with a look like whenever he knows I'm lying and shakes his head, like saying, "Don't lie". I sigh and roll my eyes. Okay, I'm thinking about her almost every day, are you happy now, Pikachu? Jeez.. how did he even know what I was thinking?
Anyway, Serena has been spinning in my mind almost incessantly over the years. From that kiss then a long time ago at the airport.. ever since.
I smile to myself. What a dense idiot I was then. I didn't see Serena's feelings, even though they were obvious. Now that I'm older, I realize they very well and I wonder if she likes me anymore. It's been a long time since we last saw...
My thoughts are interrupted as Poliwag suddenly jumps in front of me. It, in turn, reminds me of the first meeting of Serena and me in this very forest.
"Hey, Poliwag," I say to Pokemon and squat to that level. For some reason, it looks worried and points toward the scrub from which it just came. I wrinkle my forehead. Does it want me to follow it?
"Do you want me to come with you?" I ask Poliwag and it nods resolutely. I get up to stand and straighten my cap as Pikachu jumps off my shoulder. "All right," I say to Poliwag and it looks relieved. "I'll come," and then it disappears back into the bush, and Pikachu and I follow it.
Serena's POV:
I heard a crackle again from the bush next door and raised my head, which I had buried in my hands. I saw Poliwag jump up again, then came Pikachu and finally a man who said, "Poliwag? Where did you go?"
There was something very familiar about the sentence and so it was with that man. Black, messy hair, those lightning-shaped birthmarks on his cheeks, Pikachu, and those auburn eyes. He could be none other than...
"Ash?" I said in amazement and the man looked at me. He had grown and his shoulders had widened, but Ash it was, that black hair could not be mistaken. "Serena?" he said with one amazement and then Pikachu pointed to my ankle and said, "Pikapi.."
Ash glanced at my ankle and his eyes widened. "Serena, you're hurt," he said worriedly and knelt beside me. I nodded and explained, "I stumbled to one root of a tree, fell and my ankle twisted in it at the same time." Then I grimaced. "I feel like it's also broken"
Ash looked at my ankle with concern and then seemed to get the idea. "Wait a minute," he said and disappeared somewhere, but I knew he would still come back.
Pikachu jumped into my arms and tried to comfort me by hugging. I stroked his head and said with a soft smile, "Hey, Pikachu, nice to see for a long time."
Poliwag, who had stood on the sidelines, also came to me. I looked at it and said gratefully to it, "Thank you, Poliwag. Without you, Ash would not have come to me."
The little Pokemon looked pleased with herself and I giggled nonetheless. I also took Poliwag in my arms and said to it, "This is Pikachu. Pikachu, here is Poliwag. Greet each other." They greeted and I smiled at them.
Just then, Ash came to me again with two sticks. "What are you going to do with those?" I asked, staring at the sticks suspiciously and Ash grinned. "I'll splinter your legs," he said, then dug a light blue handkerchief from his pocket. "With this and the sticks"
I looked at the handkerchief and breathed. "Ash, is that the same handkerchief you used to tie my knees when we first met?" I asked and Ash looked at the handkerchief and nodded with a grin.
"It is," he said and squatted next to my ankle again. He put the sticks on either side of my ankle and then tied a handkerchief around them. It hurt, but I bit my lip. Now I wouldn't start crying.
"There," Ash said and stood up. He looked at his output with satisfaction and I also looked at it curiously to see what Ash had accomplished. "Those will support it until you get to the doctor."
He had wrapped the sticks and handkerchief around my ankle and they really supported it. I looked at Ash gratefully and said, "Thank you, Ash. Without you, I don't know what I would have done."
Ash scratched his neck and blushed slightly. "I couldn't leave you without help," he said, and Pikachu looked at him sharply. It occurred to me why.
Ash also noticed Pikachu's look and he seemed to blush more. I looked at him in amazement. What was this now? The Ash I remembered certainly wouldn't have even been able to blush.
"Ash, is there something wrong?" I asked him, but he shook his head. "I... I just have to tell you one thing... it's... pretty important," he stumbled and I looked at him intensely.
"Yes?" I said and rose to a better position against the wood. Ash somehow looked lost and looked at Pikachu, who looked this back with a "Dude, you have to take care of this yourself" look and I waited.
"I... I... Serena, I like you! More than a friend!" Ash said and Pikachu rolled his eyes, as if he had been waiting for it for some time. "I have like from the time when we were in Kalos, but I was then a dense idiot, and I didn't figured it out, but now, now I understand it, and you've been on my mind all the time during these years, I mean, I've been thinking about you often... Serena, are you okay? "
Ash's revelation came so suddenly and without warning that I had not been able to prepare for it. I never thought I would go that way. In my thoughts, I was always the one who would acknowledge the feelings for him, not the other way around.
"Serena?" Ash said and woke up. "Help me up," I said and Ash looked at me in amazement. "But you can't walk on that ankle," he said, but I didn't listen to him. "Please," I asked and Adh sighed, reaching out his hand and pulling me up with it.
Carefully not stepping on my sore ankle, I got up and stood on one leg. I looked directly at Ash's auburn eyes and said, "I like you more than a friend, too, I've always liked" And then, I pressed my lips against his lips.
Ash's POV:
She pressed her lips against my lips and my eyes spread in astonishment. She had kissed me before, but by then it had been just a small kiss and I had hardly realized it at all. But this, this was something else.
I answered the kiss and wrapped my arms gently around Serena's neck. Serena's lips tasted like strawberries and her hair smelled of some floral, maybe shampoo she was using and I felt the time slow down while we were there.
Eventually, Serena pulled away to get oxygen and I noticed she was blushing. She looks cute blushed, I thought, and then noticed a familiar blue ribbon in her hair. "Serena, is... is that the same ribbon I gave back a long time ago in Coumarine City?" I asked in amazement that she still had it and she nodded with a sweet smile.
"It is," she said, taking the ribbon out of her hair. They were again as long as when she joined us in Kalos. "Of course it is, I couldn't throw it away, it's a gift from you," she explained, blushing further. She really was cute when she blushed.
It made me flash my familiar, toothy grin and she wrapped the ribbon back in her hair. Then I got serious and said, "We should probably leave."
She nodded, but looked worried. "How do I get out of here?" she said and blinked around. "I can't walk, and I can't jump all the way on one leg"
I thought for a moment and then got the idea. "I can carry you," I said, and Serena's expression brightened as she heard it. "O, I was a fool for not figure out it myself," she said giggling and I had to smile too. Oh Arceus, she was pretty when she laughed.
I gently lifted Serena in a bridal style into my arms and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I was surprised at how light she was, she was like a feather.
"Ash, are you sure you can bear me?" she asked uncertainly, but I smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry, I guess I can," I said and it was true. She didn't weigh much and besides, I had gained strength while practicing with my Pokemon.
Pikachu did not jump on my shoulder this time, but decided to follow us. We were just leaving when our back sounded weak: "Poli wag poli" and we turned to look confused.
Poliwag stood a little sad looking a little distance away and looked at us. "Poli," it said and Serena seemed to realize what it wanted. "Ash, it must want to come with us," she said to me and then looked at Poliwag. "Isn't it, Poliwag?"
Poliwag nodded hardly and Serena and I giggled at it. "Of course you can come with us," Serena said and Poliwag's expression immediately changed from sad to a wide smile. "Poli!" it exclaimed and Serena said to her, "You can go the same way with Pikachu, he will keep you company."
Pikachu nodded to Poliwag and said, "Pika chu!" Poliwag also seemed to like the idea and jumped happily around Pikachu. Serena and I laughed at it and then we set out to head towards civilization and the doctor, with Poliwag and Pikachu following us.