Late one Saturday morning, a young girl with a long maroon ponytail was walking up the stairs to a large laboratory in Vemillion City, with a small fox-like Pokémon at her heels. She opened the front door and stepped inside, following the smell of food and the faint sound of conversation as it led her down a hallway. She soon stepped into a large kitchen, finding three familiar occupants inside. A colorful, humanoid Pokémon was standing at the stove, cooking up what looked like pancakes. An older, brown-haired man with glasses was standing near the large window, sipping from a mug of coffee. Lastly, a dark-skinned boy with short black hair was sitting at the table, finishing up a plate of pancakes of his own.
"Morning, Chloe," the older man spoke, turning to face the young girl. "Sleep alright?"
"I slept fine, Dad," she replied, her eyes scanning the room a second time. "Where's Ash? Isn't he usually awake by now?" Down at her feet, her Eevee walked further into the room, sniffing at the air and wondering how she could finagle her way into getting some pancakes for herself.
"Not if he's stayed up late looking at his Pokédex and working on battle strategies," the young boy answered a bit dismissively, wiping his mouth with a napkin before tossing it onto his plate.
"Well, Goh, it's better than staying up late working on the homework you didn't finish," Chloe retorted snidely.
Goh winced. "Come on, that's only happened…" He took a moment to try and count the instances, before standing up and pushing his chair back with his legs. "Anyway, I'll go wake up Ash. It's late enough." Chloe rolled her eyes as he stepped past her, lightly jogging down the hall in an attempt to escape her aura of condescension. Mr. Mime stepped over to the table and retrieved Goh's discarded plate, moving to wash it.
"So, Chloe, any plans for the day?" her father asked, taking another sip of coffee. He noted her casual outfit, consisting of a blue-striped shirt and a pair of yellow overalls. She didn't seem dressed for anything in particular.
"Nope, no plans." She shook her head. "I wanted to come over and see if anything was happening here, but if not…"
He shrugged. "I didn't have anything planned, myself. Maybe you can have some fun with Ash or Goh today. I bet they'll have some sort of adventure planned… or maybe an adventure will just find them."
She frowned. "That depends on what the adventure is…" The two boys working as research assistants for her father, Prof. Cerise, had a tendency to find fun and terror in almost equal measure. She had a policy of scoping out their plans ahead of time, to determine if she would come along or quietly slip out the door at her first opportunity.
"Um." Both of the Cerises turned to look at Goh as he returned, a bit of a stunned look on his face. "Ash is… kinda… gone."
"Gone?" Prof. Cerise's eyebrows raised. "What do you mean? He's not in his bed?"
"I found this note on his pillow, under his blanket." He held up a small piece of notebook paper, with a sloppy but recognizable scrawl on it. "It just says 'back tomorrow'. That's it."
"Tomorrow…" The professor frowned. "He didn't say anything to you about this, Goh?"
The boy shook his head. "He never told me he was going anywhere. I don't remember him acting strange yesterday, either." He looked curiously in Chloe's direction, but she shook her head, indicating that she hadn't been told anything, either.
All three of them were frowning now, puzzled and a bit disturbed by Ash's sudden departure. His disappearance was made all the more mysterious by how thoroughly not mysterious Ash was. He wore his heart on his sleeve at all times, and he was always eager to volunteer his thoughts, his plans, and his dreams for the future at the slightest provocation. He was the last person any of them would expect to suddenly abscond on a secret day-long errand.
"Maybe we can find out where he went," Goh suggested after a quiet moment. "Maybe he took some of his Pokémon with him for a battle somewhere. I'll go check."
Chloe sighed, stepping forward and lifting Eevee into her arms. "So this is going to be today's great adventure. The adventure of Finding Out Where Ash Went." Even as she complained, she started walking alongside her childhood friend to Cerise Park behind the lab, where the two boys kept all of their Pokémon. This was a mystery she was interested in solving, hoping to learn a little more about the inner workings of Ash's not-so-simple mind.
At that moment, Ash was hundreds of miles away, stepping out of an airport and into the sunshine over Lilycove City in the region of Hoenn, his partner Pikachu on his shoulder.
The raven-haired boy was already buzzing with excitement as he started walking down the sidewalk, on his way to the Lilycove Contest Hall. He was a bit early - several hours early, really - but he wanted to make sure he could get a good seat for the upcoming event. Knowing who was competing at the upcoming Grand Festival, he had a strong suspicion that the venue was going to end up packed to the rafters. The thought of failing to get a seat was enough to make even Ash plan ahead, something he was notoriously bad at.
After a few minutes of walking, he could see the large, arena-like Contest Hall coming into view. He grinned and started picking up the pace, but his stride was disrupted after only half a block. He came to a quick stop and turned to look at a tall poster on the other side of the street, which was an advertisement for one of Hoenn's newest and hottest idol duos, Bountiful Heart. The two girls that made up the duo were featured prominently on the poster, each of them standing three stories tall. One of them was a green-haired girl named Lisia, whom Ash had heard about but never met in person. The other girl was the reason Ash was currently in Lilycove City.
As he looked up at the image of the honey-blonde girl, posing with her hands clasped over her heart, he could feel a familiar pressure on his chest, as if her presence were slightly suffocating. It was a new and bizarre sensation which he'd only started to experience a few weeks before, whenever she crossed his mind. It was like his heart was being compressed, but pulled upon at the same time, and that firm tug had brought him all the way to Hoenn. He got the sense that it was only going to get worse from here, but he had waited for this reunion for long enough.
He took in a deep breath and let it out, turning to face the Pokémon on his shoulder. "Are you ready to see Serena again, Pikachu?" His partner let out an ecstatic cheer, and he grinned and continued on toward the Contest Hall.
As he got closer, he was surprised to see a line of people at the door, which was shut tight. There seemed to be twenty or thirty people there, all waiting to get the best seats for the Grand Festival, hours before they were even allowed inside. Ash realized that if he wanted to have even a halfway decent seat, he was going to have to join the line with everyone else. He stopped and looked around, spotting a nearby convenience store and heading inside. If he was going to wait this out, he would need some snacks.
"I found Dracovish!" Chloe reported, calling out into the air of Cerise Park. "He's over here by the stream!"
"Got it! That just leaves- gah!" Goh's report was interrupted by a startled yelp. "Never mind, Gengar is here!"
Chloe walked over to where Goh had been spooked, counting on her fingers. "So that's Dracovish, Gengar, Sirfetch'd, Dragonite and Lucario…" She looked back at her friend, who had an annoyed expression on his face, and a large, purple Ghost-type Pokémon sitting on his head. "I'm not forgetting anyone, am I?"
Goh shook his head, causing Gengar to wobble back and forth. "That's his whole team, except for Pikachu. And if he had left Pikachu behind, then we'd know something was seriously wrong."
Her eyebrows furrowed as she puzzled over this. "So wherever he went, it wasn't for a Pokémon battle. That eliminates… basically every guess I had for what he's up to."
"Yeah, same here." Goh tried to mimic her frown, which was difficult when Gengar was reaching down and tugging his cheeks into a goofy smile. He swatted the Pokémon away with his hand. "Battling is pretty much all he does. That and eating, I guess."
Chloe suppressed a snicker. "I don't think he's just out to lunch." She looked back out at the landscape of the park, which was mostly populated with the dozens and dozens of Pokémon that Goh had caught in his travels while working for the professor. She tried to clear her mind and think this through logically. Why did anyone go anywhere? In a broad sense, people traveled in order to see places, events or people. They had ruled out events, since the only event Ash likely cared about was a Pokémon battle, and he wasn't going to one of those. It was possible he had gone to see someone, but she wasn't sure who he would go see that he didn't want to tell anyone about. They knew about all his friends in Alola, and she couldn't see why he would hide a meeting with someone like Dawn, or-
She paused, blinking a couple of times, as a thought suddenly came to her. Maybe she did have an idea of where Ash was. She just needed some way of confirming her suspicions.
"Maybe we can check in his room?" she proposed, turning back toward the lab. "He might have left some sort of clue in there."
Goh's eyes followed her as she started walking, Eevee trailing behind her. "A clue? Like what?"
"Never know until we take a look, right?"
He watched her curiously for a moment before following behind her. Chloe's idea was better than the zero ideas he had come up with after checking the park. He just didn't expect her to be so invested in finding out where Ash had gone.
Minutes later, the pair of them were digging through the bedroom that Ash and Goh shared at the laboratory, where Ash spent nearly all of his nights, and Goh stayed over when necessary or convenient. Goh was scoping out the area around Ash's bed, which included a lot of his personal items. Chloe had taken on the job of looking through the boy's cluttered desk, which was mostly covered with marked-up printouts of Pokédex entries, along with random snack food wrappers and the occasional low-skill doodle from when he had grown bored. She was amazed to see him ever taking notes on anything, but maybe being near the top of the World Coronation Series rankings was enough to make even him work smarter instead of harder.
"As far as I can tell, all of his stuff is here," Goh eventually spoke up. "Wherever it is he went, he didn't bring much with him." He stepped over to the wastebasket in the corner of the room, looking into it in search of notes or receipts, as Eevee mimicked his actions. "Any luck over there?"
"Nothing so far…" She opened one of the drawers in the cabinet that supported the desk on the right side, finding it filled with random junk. "I feel like we're in that movie we saw once, where they're trying to track down a serial killer by looking through his stuff."
He snickered. "I remember that. I don't think Ash is a good enough planner to get away with something like that, though."
She glanced over in his direction, unable to hide a grin. "That's your first reason why Ash isn't a serial killer?"
They both shared a short laugh before returning to their tasks. Goh carefully inspected the papers he saw in the wastebasket, trying not to touch a discarded banana peel, while Chloe started sifting through the knickknacks that had been crammed into the desk drawer.
"Ugh." Goh dropped a soiled receipt back into the wastebasket, after confirming that it was just a receipt for potions from a local store. "I don't think we're going to find anything in here. We might have to look somewhere else… where, though?" On the other side of the room, Chloe was standing still, eyes fixed on a small day calendar she had uncovered. A knowing smile crept across her lips.
"You know, maybe we shouldn't be trying so hard to pry into Ash's life," she offered, standing up straight. "He said he'd be back tomorrow, didn't he? And if anyone can take care of themselves, it's him." She closed the drawer subtly as she spoke.
"Huh?" Goh stood up as well. "Don't you want to know where he is, though?"
"I can just ask him when he gets back." She stepped away from the desk, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
He frowned, not wanting to give up his investigation so soon after it started. "I mean, I guess, but…" He didn't finish his sentence, as his friend walked out the door and into the hallway. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"I have plans," she answered tersely, turning and walking in the direction of the front door, looking down at her phone.
"Whuh…" He ran out into the hallway after her. "But didn't you tell your dad that-"
"See you tomorrow, Goh." She cut him off, walking past the kitchen and giving her father an equally terse goodbye before stepping out the front door, her Pokémon faithfully and curiously by her side. Her smile continued to grow as she walked down the long staircase to the laboratory, toward downtown Vermillion City.
"Have you finally figured it out, Ash?" she spoke quietly to herself.
Hours later, the audience in the Lilycove Contest Hall was cheering and applauding, as yet another skilled performer took a bow and departed the stage after his appeal round. Ash, seated in a third-row seat in the center left of the auditorium, applauded politely as well. He had been impressed by the performance, as he had been by every performance so far, but he was saving his cheers for Serena, whenever she took the stage. His heart raced in anticipation every time a performer left, in the hopes that she would be the next to arrive. Just the possibility of seeing her walk on stage was enough to excite him, all by itself.
All of this was new territory for Ash. The two of them had traveled together for months on end through the region of Kalos, and he'd never felt anything like this back then. Even at the end of her journey, when she had said goodbye to him with his and her first kiss, he hadn't felt any differently toward her than he did before - though there were a lot of things about her that suddenly made a lot more sense. After months of learning and battling in Alola, and months of working as a research assistant under Prof. Cerise, his thoughts and feelings toward her had not changed.
What had changed everything was a short, otherwise innocuous meeting on a dock.
Their paths had crossed a few weeks ago, as Ash, Goh and Chloe had all been leaving Lilycove City by boat. Ash and Goh had spent their time battling and chasing Pokémon, while Chloe had participated in her very first Pokémon Contest, under Serena's guidance. As the trio of friends scrambled onto the boat to return to Vermillion City, Ash and Serena finally encountered each other again. The two of them only had a minute to speak to each other, which they spent exchanging pleasantries, updating each other on their goals, and wishing each other good luck. Despite their short meeting, however, Ash had noticed there there was something fundamentally different about her - something he had been awaiting for a long time.
Through their entire journey in Kalos, Ash could see a spark of untapped potential within her, waiting to be unleashed. She carried it nervously with her as they traveled from city to city, and he could see glimpses of it as she discovered and fostered a new love for Pokémon performances. As she danced and performed with her Pokémon partners on one stage after another, he could see her potential growing, trying to surface. As she departed Kalos for Hoenn at the end of their journey, she had promised Ash that he would like the person she would grow into, and he knew without question that she was right.
Months later, as the two of them spoke on the dock with Ash's boat pulling away, he could see exactly what kind of person she had grown into. She spoke more brightly, stood taller, carried herself with confidence and maturity. There was a gleam in her eyes that reminded him of several of his strongest rivals, portraying an unshakeable determination to charge forward in pursuit of her dreams. Seeing her again was like looking at a Pokémon that had just evolved, like a Silcoon that has emerged from its cocoon as a Beautifly. Her spark had ignited into a flame that was burning bright. As his boat slowly pulled away, and they continued to wave to each other, Ash felt a sick feeling in his stomach at the thought of watching her go. The feeling stayed with him for the entire journey home.
Once he had arrived back in Kanto, Ash did something he almost never did, and did some research into what Serena had been up to since they parted. She had been lighting up the Hoenn contest circuit with some astounding performances, and she had mastered the art of contest battling with surprising speed. Mere days after seeing him again, she had formed the idol duo Bountiful Heart with her rival Lisia, turning her into an overnight celebrity. As he watched videos of her contests, or her shows with Lisia, he felt an incredible sense of pride, but what came with it was the strange tightness in his chest and stomach, an odd sort of heartache that he wasn't familiar with. He knew that he missed her, as he missed many of his friends, but when he was watching her performances he missed her in a way that physically hurt. As uncomfortable as the pain was, he couldn't stop himself from watching more and more of what she'd done, the heartache compounding with every passing day. Something had changed within him as well as her, and he wasn't sure what it was.
Upon realizing that she had qualified for the Hoenn Grand Festival, he had immediately booked a plane ticket, his head buzzing and his heart pounding as he did so. He'd spent enough time missing her. He'd spent enough nights lying in bed watching videos of her contest battles, with a racing heart and a lump in his throat. He was going to see her again with his own two eyes. After thinking on the matter for a solid week or so, he thought he had an idea of what these feelings meant. Now, here in Lilycove City, he was determined to find out for certain.
First, however, he was going to see an incredible series of performances.
"Thank you to Ferdinand for that delightful performance!" A brunette announcer in an elegant pink dress, whom Ash recognized as Vivian Meridian, gestured toward the curtain at the back of the stage, where the last performer had departed. "Our next competitor has been making waves all over Hoenn, not just as a coordinator, but as part of an idol duo that's at the top of the charts! You know her, you love her… put your hands together for Serena!"
Ash did as he was told, clapping and cheering as loudly as he could, as the curtain was pushed aside and Serena finally stepped out onto the stage, with her elegant Sylveon by her side. As he watched her step confidently forward, wearing an immaculately designed blue-and-pink top, a similarly colored skirt, and perfectly paired accessories, he could feel himself growing warmer, as blood rushed to his cheeks. She looked great - she always looked great, it was an inherent trait of hers - but more importantly, she looked confident and self-assured, just as she had on the dock. She had the look of someone who knew she was about to become Hoenn's Top Coordinator.
"Let's get started!" she declared to both the audience and her Pokémon. "Fairy Wind, Sylveon!"
Her Sylveon extended her ribbons out in front of her face, forming a small whirlwind of glittering air before carefully shooting it out in front of her. Instead of a straightforward blast, the wind swirled around in a large mass on stage, blowing back Serena's hair and skirt. It was impressive on a technical level, but not the most visually interesting thing the crowd had seen today. Ash could see that she had a plan, though, and was curious as to what came next.
"Now, Moonblast, followed by Fairy Wind again!" Sylveon spread her ribbons wide and opened her mouth, forming a pink mass of energy in her jaw, which she launched forward into the whirlwind. She had fired the Moonblast with very little force, moving slowly, and the powerful winds forced it to move even more slowly. Soon, Sylveon added another round of Fairy Wind into the mix, which was enough to perfectly suspend the Moonblast in place, in the middle of the air. The crowd gasped in amazement, not having known this was even possible.
Serena grinned wide, knowing she had the audience in the palm of her hand. It was time for the finishing blow. "Now, finish up with Swift!"
Sylveon leaped into the air and spun around, swinging her tail, which generated a series of yellow stars that shot toward the suspended Moonblast. They curved around with expert precision, striking and swiping across the energy ball with exact movements, and the Moonblast burst into a large, glittering, pink heart. More Swift stars wrapped themselves around the glittering cloud, creating ribbons of energy that wrapped themselves around the heart. The pattern lingered in the air for several seconds before dissipating, leaving Serena to curtsy to the cheering crowd, as her Sylveon bowed. The appeal had been short, which was normal for the first round, but she had left an impressive impact.
"What a gorgeous appeal!" Vivian declared, as the crowd grew even louder and more raucous in support of their idol. "Thank you, Serena! Everyone, please give her another round of applause before we hear from our judges!"
Serena turned to politely listen as the four assembled judges gave their glowing feedback, before the crowd resumed cheering once again. Ash watched as her eyes swept across the audience, drinking in their energy, feeling their strength become hers. Her eyes briefly passed over him as she scanned the crowd, before coming to an abrupt stop and snapping back to him. As their eyes met, he could see her suppress a gasp, her eyes wide, stiff as a board for a brief moment that felt like an eternity.
He grinned and waved at her with one arm, as Pikachu waved with both arms from Ash's lap. Serena quickly settled, her face breaking into a wide, blushing smile, before she turned to walk off the stage as she was supposed to. A subtle wave of her hand from her side was all she gave him as she departed, just enough for him to notice, and nobody else. She walked calmly offstage, giving no indication of what had just happened to the rest of the crowd.
Rather than being upset, Ash was impressed by her lack of a reaction to his appearance. She had clearly become a professional entertainer, unflappable on stage even if she had just been completely shocked. The smile she had given him - a genuine, heartfelt, excited smile that he had never seen her show to anyone else - was all he needed to see. He held Pikachu a bit more tightly, settling back into his seat as the next coordinator took the stage. He couldn't wait to see what else Serena had in store for the audience, and for him.
Hours later, Ash's expectations had been blown away by Hoenn's new Top Coordinator.
Serena had easily charmed her way through the second appeal round, and climbed her way through three different battle rounds to the finals. He had become very similar with Serena's battle style over the past few weeks, which combined a visual spectacle with a wild unpredictability; he liked to tell himself that he had played some role in influencing her strategy. Each progressive battle had been more difficult, but she still walked away from each with a comfortable margin of victory. After each round, their eyes would meet again, for only a brief second, before she stepped offstage. He hoped that she could see how proud of her he was.
The final battle could not have gotten the audience more excited: Serena was going up against her partner and rival, Lisia. Playing to the crowd, both of them had changed into their iconic idol outfits, and the stadium had played their theme music over the speakers. It almost started to feel scripted, but Ash could tell that the battle was genuine, as Lisia's Altaria battled fiercely against Serena's Delphox. The two of them stayed neck and neck for nearly the entire round, but Lisia simply didn't have the same drive that her rival had. Serena wanted the victory far more, and once the timer finished counting down and the points were tallied, that was exactly what she got.
Ash was on his feet cheering with the rest of the crowd as she received her trophy and said a few words of gratitude to everyone who had supported her. He tried as best he could to meet her gaze, but the spectators in front of him were standing as well, and they were much taller than he was. As the Grand Festival drew to a close, Serena, Lisia, Vivian and the judges all vanished into the back of the venue, and the crowd began to disperse. Ash was disappointed, but brushed it off. He would just congratulate her when he saw her after the show.
This turned out to be much easier said than done. Ash had to battle his way through a sea of spectators moving in the opposite direction, herding themselves toward the exit as he tried to reach the doors leading backstage. Once he finally reached the door, a large man in sunglasses and a black suit reached his hand out to stop Ash from proceeding.
"Whoa, there, son," he spoke in a deep voice. "Nobody's allowed backstage without authorization. Move along."
"I need to see Serena!" Ash protested. "I'm a friend of hers!"
"Yeah, I haven't heard that a hundred times today." The bouncer's face remained flat. "What's you name, kid?"
"Ash Ketchum."
The man shook his head immediately. "Nope, you're not on her list. Only a handful of her friends are allowed back there, and you're not one of them."
"But…" Ash was starting to grow desperate. "She didn't know I was coming! That's why I'm not on her list!"
The bouncer's eyebrows raised. "Well, now you're definitely not getting in." He stood up taller, emphasizing his intimidating size as he towered over the young trainer. "I think you had better leave before we have to get more security guys out here." The man's eyes moved to Pikachu, who was sitting on his shoulder with his cheeks sparking threateningly.
Ash could feel his temper rising, but the image of himself being hauled off by two large security guards and thrown outside was keeping him in check. He grumbled and turned away, walking as slowly as he could, trying to think of some way that he could get backstage. He was too close to be stopped here.
"Excuse me." A voice from behind him caused him to turn around, where he found himself looking up at a woman with short green hair, round rimmed glasses, and a suit jacket with pencil skirt. "Did you say your name was Ash Ketchum?"
"Yes!" He stepped up closer to her, almost uncomfortably so, hope flooding his heart. "Do you know Serena? Can you get me backstage to see her?!"
"I have a message for you from her," the woman reported in a businesslike manner. "She says 'go to the dock and wait for as long as you can'. That's the message. She didn't say which dock."
"Great, thanks!" Ash turned on his heel and raced off toward the exit, merging into the throng of people slowly filing out of the Lilycove Contest Hall. He pulled out his phone and checked the current time, then checked the time of his return flight. He bit his lip as he put the device back into his pocket, hoping that they would be able to see each other in time. He didn't have much to say, but he suspected it could take him a while to say it.
Later that evening, Ash was sitting on the end of a dock, his feet dangling off the edge, as his Pikachu stared down into the water, trying to get a glimpse of the Pokémon swimming around below them. The boy had instantly known which dock Serena had been referring to in her message. This was the dock where the two of them had briefly reunited, after Chloe's first contest. This was the dock where everything about Serena suddenly changed.
He had mostly kept his new feelings bottled up inside, trying to work through them on his own. He was normally a very open person and rarely had trouble talking about himself, but something about this made him feel vulnerable, which was one of his least favorite things to be. He couldn't imagine talking to someone about how an old friend of his was suddenly making his cheeks burn and putting butterflies in his stomach. The idea was utterly mortifying. Only one person had managed to pry him open and get to the pearl of truth inside: Chloe Cerise.
Two weeks ago, Ash had been sitting in the lounge of Cerise Laboratory, watching one of Serena's contests on his phone, when he was surprised by hearing Chloe's voice from behind him, bidding him hello. He had reflexively slammed his phone down onto the soft armrest of his chair, screen side down, as if he had been watching something scandalous. He didn't know why he did it, and he immediately regretted it, as his embarrassed action had aroused Chloe's suspicions. She didn't say anything about it at first, making small talk while staring at his red cheeks, not really wanting to know what he had been watching. Seconds later, however, the voice of an announcer came from his muffled phone, praising Serena for an extraordinary performance. The awkward silence between them was somehow louder than the noise of the video.
It didn't take much prodding from Chloe, who could have been a professional interrogator if she wanted, to get Ash to open up. He told her about the kiss she had given him before she left Kalos. He told her about how different she had been when they reunited in Lilycove City. He told her about all the performances and concerts he had watched, and how unusually captivating they had been, and the strange heartache that they had given to him. As she listened, her expression morphed from curious, to astonished, to pitying, to irritated.
"You're emotionally immature, just like Goh is," she had told him in a judgmental voice, which had initially upset him, but she seemed much more in tune with her emotions than he was, so maybe she was right. He tried to pick her brain, to try and get her expert help in sorting out his head. She had refused.
"This is something you need to figure out on your own, Ash. For your sake and for hers," she had said. "But… I hope you do."
This interaction summed up Chloe pretty well, Ash thought. She was blunt, impatient, easily irritated, and not afraid to speak her mind. At the same time, she could be sweet and caring, and a devoted friend to the people she cared for. Ash had done his best to honor her request, trusting her judgment. Hopefully he would find out how well he did when Serena showed up - if she showed up.
He looked down at his phone again, his heart sinking as he saw the time. It had been two hours since the end of the Grand Festival. It wouldn't be long before he would have to go to the airport and catch his flight home. He sighed and slipped his phone back into his pocket. Maybe the two of them weren't supposed to meet again like this. Maybe they would continue to see each other only for a few minutes at a time every few months, or few years, their paths intersecting but never dovetailing. He might have been satisfied with that before, but now-
"Ash!"
He whirled around as quickly as he could, as Pikachu sat up and turned toward the voice, both of them recognizing it instantly. His eyes lit up as he saw Serena waving at him, jogging along the sidewalk, looking out of breath. She had changed out of her performance outfit, and was now wearing the same thing she had been a few weeks back - a black sleeveless turtleneck, a red-and-white skirt, and a gray hat.
"Serena!" He hopped up and ran back toward her, Pikachu climbing onto his shoulder. As the two of them reached each other, she leaned down with her hands on her knees, catching her breath. She must have been running for a while, he realized.
"I'm so sorry!" she managed. "I had to do this press thing and it just dragged on… then I had to go back to my hotel and take a shower, then I had to sneak out without anyone seeing…"
He grinned at her. "You stopped to take a shower?"
"Yes!" She looked back up at him indignantly. "Do you know how hot those stage lights get? I wasn't going to see you when I was all sweaty and gross!"
He covered his mouth with his fist, snickering. "It's great to see you again, Serena."
"You too, Ash!" She smiled wide as she stood up fully, before stepping forward and throwing her arms around him. "I did it, Ash! I won! I'm Top Coordinator!"
He was taken aback for a moment, but he recovered quickly, wrapping his arms back around her. "You were amazing! I can't believe how much better you've gotten in such a short time!"
"I've been working really hard ever since I arrived! I didn't think I would get this far, though." She continued holding onto him, her grip slackening slightly as he felt her resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm really glad you were here to see it."
"Yeah… me, too." He felt a contentedness settling in his heart as he held her in his arms. They fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.
She eventually stepped back, looking him in the eyes, but Pikachu interrupted the moment by leaping toward her. She laughed and caught him in his arms, holding him tightly. "It's great to see you too, Pikachu! You're looking well!" He cheered and nuzzled his cheek against hers, and she giggled in response. Ash grinned and let them have their moment. Pikachu and Serena had been good friends, too.
Watching the two of them interact, he could see a clear image of the old Serena residing alongside the new one. This was the Serena that had traveled with him through Kalos, who baked Poké Puffs for dessert, who kept the traveling group of friends on the right track with her map, who tucked in young Bonnie and kissed her goodnight each night before bed. The new and the old Serena still existed side by side in the same person, which was exciting and comforting at the same time. Seeing her like this gave him a strange feeling that felt like coming home to Pallet Town after a long journey. It was calming. It was serene. It felt like he had found somewhere he belonged.
In this moment, Ash finally found the words to describe how he felt about her.
"How long are you here?" She looked back at him, continuing to hold Pikachu in her arms. "There's so much I want to talk about!"
"Me, too!" He pulled out his phone once more, trying to will time to go backwards, which did not happen. "I should be at the airport in about an hour if I want to make my flight, so…"
"An hour?" Her smile fell away. "You're not staying longer?"
"Well…" He could see in her eyes that he had made a mistake. "When I got the flight, I was just thinking about the Grand Festival… I didn't think about…"
"Oh… well, that's okay," she replied, in a tone of voice that indicated it wasn't really okay. "We've still got a lot more time than we did before. We can go for a walk and head to the airport afterward."
He nodded, putting on a smile. "That sounds great."
She smiled back at him, starting to lead the way. "What have you been doing all this time? I saw you won the Alola League a few months back. What was Alola like? I've always wanted to go and see it."
He laughed and started walking alongside her, telling her all about the Pokémon School in Alola and the friends he made there, as Pikachu relaxed in her arms.
"…And now with Bountiful Heart taking off, everything is kind of a whirlwind," Serena explained some time later, as the two of them walked through the Lilycove City Airport. Both of them had slowed their paces considerably, wanting to extend their conversation as long as possible. "And it's probably about to get worse, after winning the Grand Festival. I don't know how Lisia does it."
"I think it's exciting!" Ash replied, holding a half-asleep Pikachu in his arms. "Think of all the people you can reach this way! And this is just going to help you prepare for being Kalos Queen later."
Serena grinned wide, his infectious positivity spreading to her. "Kalos Queen… I don't know when that's going to happen, now. I can't abandon Lisia just as we're getting big, and then being Top Coordinator… I think Hoenn is going to end up being my second home for a little while."
"Well, that's alright, isn't it?" he responded. "All of this is just going to get you closer to your dream. Nothing we do is a waste of time, remember?"
She giggled, covering her mouth. "You haven't changed a bit, Ash."
"You have," he responded automatically, before he could stop himself.
"You think so?" She looked back at him, brushing some of her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah." He nodded at her. "But it's a good change. I like the new Serena."
She smiled warmly at him, feeling her cheeks flush just a bit. "Thank you, Ash. I do, too."
The two of them came to a stop, eyes still fixed on each other, having nowhere else to go. After a long walk through Lilycove City, the two of them had finally arrived at Ash's gate. They had run out of space, and as they were about to learn, they had also run out of time.
"Attention, passengers," a male voice rang out over the intercom system. "Flight LE129 for Vermillion City is now boarding. All passengers for flight LE129, please proceed to the gate."
The smile dropped off of Serena's face. "That's you, isn't it?"
"Yeah, that's my flight." His stomach twisted into a knot as he looked back at her, seeing her smile fade away. There were so many things he wanted to say, and so many things he wanted to hear from her. Even if they had another hour, or another day, it didn't seem like it would have been enough time. In truth, though, even if he had all the time in the world, he wasn't sure he would be able to say the one thing he wanted to say. He knew how he felt. He knew how she felt about him. Why was this so difficult?
"Well… it was great catching up with you." Her lips curled into a smile again, one that was partly forced, partly sincere, and partly wistful. "I'm really glad you were there with me. It meant a lot."
He nodded back at her, feeling a lump forming in his throat. After all the time he had spent learning about the new Serena, after going out of his way and avoiding his friends to come see her all on his own, the two of them were about to leave each other again. All he had gotten was an hour of her time before they went their separate ways. Was this really going to be it? With her becoming a rising star in Hoenn, and him climbing the ranks of the World Coronation Series, were they just going to be occasional blips in each other's lives?
She took a small step back, her disappointment cracking through her show smile. "Good luck in the World-"
"Serena." He interrupted her, taking a step forward to close the gap again. She paused, surprising, waiting for him to continue, as he scrambled to find words he was capable of saying in the moment. He didn't know what he was going to say, but he had to say something. "You… you're going to do it, you know. You're going to achieve your dream and become Kalos Queen."
"Ash…" He could see her eyes light up, her smile growing more genuine. "And you're going to be a Pokémon Master one day. I can feel it."
He nodded, his fist clenching underneath the Pokémon he was holding in his arms, the words starting to flow out of him by themselves. "And when we do it… when we both achieve our dreams… let's go on another journey, together."
Her eyes widened, as her heart skipped a beat. "You mean it…?"
"Yeah, of course." He felt himself grinning as he saw the dumbfounded expression on her face. "I don't know where we would go, but… I know I want you to be there with me. What do you say?"
She was beaming at him now, practically glowing, looking as if she was holding back tears. "Alright. It's a promise, Ash." She was using her special smile, the one that he had only ever seen when she was smiling for him. He smiled back at her, his heart beating at a million miles an hour, as the voice on the intercom reiterated its request for passengers to board their flights.
"I need to go." He took a few steps toward his gate, stopping right before a moving walkway. "Take care, Serena! You're going to be the best Top Coordinator Hoenn's ever seen!"
She grinned and took a step back. "See you again, Ash." They kept their eyes on each other as Ash stepped onto the moving walkway, which began to slowly carry him away. As he was pulled toward his gate, a small rush of passengers emerged, crossing in between the two on their way to their flights. By the time they had disappeared, Serena was gone.
He let out a long breath, feeling his heart rate slowly returning to normal. He hadn't said what he really wanted to say - he wasn't sure he was capable of it, right now - but he had managed something that conveyed how special she was, and it looked as if she had understood. He was proud of himself for what he had managed to do. He hoped that it would suffice until the two of them met again, whenever that might be.
As he reached the end of the moving walkway, he turned around to walk to his gate, only to find himself face-to-face with a pair of familiar, piercing green eyes, attached to a girl with a long maroon ponytail.
"Ch-Chloe?!" he managed, choking on his words in his shock. "What are you doing here?!"
"What was that, Ash?" Chloe demanded, visibly frustrated with him. "You came all the way out here to see Serena, and you're just going to leave her like that?!"
"Whuh… you saw…?" He could feel himself starting to shrink under her gaze. Suddenly he was feeling a lot less proud of himself.
She reached out and snatched a confused Pikachu out of his arms, before pointing back down the hallway he had just traversed. "Go back out there and give her a real goodbye, right now! This might be your only chance!" The Eevee standing at her feet mimicked her by pointing with her paw.
"What do you mean…?" He was already taking a step back.
"You know what I mean!" she retorted. "Hurry, before she leaves!"
Ash took several more steps back, before turning and starting to run down the hallway, his head swimming with nerves and confusion. He still wasn't sure he could do what she wanted him to do, but he knew that he had to try. If he chickened out now, the consequences would be dire.
He started picking up speed as he turned toward the airport's main exit, hoping that he was traveling in the same direction that she had. He zigged and zagged through groups of passengers, moving as fast as he could while trying not to knock anyone over. As he approached the main lobby, he spotted her honey-blonde hair, attached to her retreating back.
"Serena!" he called out, causing her to whirl around, shock and surprise written on her face. He could see her calling his name back in response. She may have said some other things, too, but he couldn't hear them over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. She started walking toward him, helping him to close the gap, her eyes hopeful, almost pleading. He wanted this. She wanted this. It was now or never.
He grasped her hand, pulled her close, closed his eyes, and gave her the goodbye she deserved.
"How did you find out where I was?" Ash asked, as the plane pulled away from the gate.
"You wrote 'Hoenn Grand Festival' on the day calendar in your desk," Chloe explained, sitting next to him. "Once I found that, it wasn't hard to figure out where you had gone."
"Okay, but… the same flight, even…?" he responded, still catching his breath. He had to sprint back through the airport to make his flight, as Serena had not allowed him to leave after only one kiss. She nearly hadn't let him leave at all.
"That took a little detective work to figure out," she continued. "Just so you know, 'pikachu' is not a very secure email password."
He glowered at her for a moment before looking away, folding his arms. When he got home, he was adding an exclamation point to the end of his password. "I still can't believe you flew all the way out here just to follow me."
"It wasn't just to follow you," Chloe insisted. "Serena's a friend of mine, too. I was hoping I could see her perform at the Grand Festival, to see what a top-level coordinator is like, but it was completely full by the time I arrived." She looked out the window as the plane started to roll down the runway. "I got some dinner and then tried to find you, but when I finally did, the two of you were talking, so I gave you both some privacy."
"Until we got to the airport, that is," he noted.
"Well, someone had to make sure you didn't screw it up, which you very nearly did," she responded, unfazed by his irritated tone. He didn't respond right away, so she continued on. "I'm glad you didn't, though. It was obvious how much you liked her. Now you can both be happy together."
He nodded, looking down as a smile spread across his face. After the night he'd had, it was impossible for him to stay unhappy for long. "Thanks, Chloe. You're a good friend."
She smiled as well, though she still wasn't looking in his direction. "Are you two going to see each other again soon?"
"She's going to come to the World Coronation Series tournament when it happens," he answered. "I think she's going to be pretty busy until then, with everything she's doing."
"Makes sense." She nodded. "Hopefully I get a chance to talk to her while she's there."
"Yeah… I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to see her tonight."
"It's fine," she reassured him. "It was just a thought. Besides, if I really needed to talk to her about something, I could just get her phone number from you."
His lack of response to this made her suspicious. She turned back to him, her heart sinking as she saw the realization and regret on his face. "Ash… please tell me you managed to get her phone number."
"It… might have… slipped my mind…?" He tried to pacify her with an innocent smile.
"Oh my gosh." She let out a groan, holding her head in one hand. "You are completely hopeless, Ash."
"Sorry, just… tonight was a lot…" He knew it was a weak justification even as he said it.
She sighed as she sat back again, keeping her eyes closed. "Well, there are still ways for you to get it. You're just going to have to do some work."
"Yeah…" He nodded as if he understood, but in truth he didn't even know where to start. "Do you think you could help me find it?"
She turned her head away from him, but he could still somehow feel her glare. "I think I've done you enough favors for one day."
"I know, I know…" he conceded, a sheepish grin on his face as he pressed his luck. "But really, what's one more?"
"Ugh, you're as bad as Goh," she grumbled, as the plane started to increase speed rapidly. She let her irritation hang in the air for a moment before responding. "I guess I do owe Serena a favor… fine, but this is all you're getting from me."
"Thanks a bunch, Chloe." He smiled wide, truly grateful. "I'll pay you back for this somehow, I promise."
"I'll think of something," she answered. She was trying to sound annoyed, but she couldn't keep a smile from forming on her face.
Ash closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and relaxing as the plane lifted into the air. He was feeling a contentment that he hadn't felt in a long time. He had finally confessed his feelings to the girl that meant more to him than any other, and she had reciprocated. What's more, he had found someone that he felt comfortable talking to about things like this - most things, at least. He had told Chloe almost everything that happened that night, but there was one detail he left out. He had neglected to tell her about the three simple words Serena had shouted at him as he raced back toward his plane, three words that had singlehandedly given him the courage to say them to her in return. Those words were for him, and him alone.
It wasn't long before exhaustion settled in and he fell asleep, snoring obnoxiously next to Chloe as she tried to read a book, as the plane brought the two of them back to Kanto.
