Serena woke up the next morning wrapped in Ash's arms. Morning light was filtering through the thin curtains of their room. She looked at her hand she gazed into the deep blue of the sapphire, she had no clue Ash knew so much about jewellery. She still had the necklace around her neck; it wasn't as heavy as it looked. Serena was thinking about yesterday going over every moment when Ash started to wake up.
"Hey." She said with a smile.
Ash kissed her then said "Morning fiancé."
"Morning fiancé." Serena giggled.
She started to get out of bed before Ash stopped her. He shook his head. "You're staying in bed with me."
"You seem very confident of that." She remarked
"Oh, I am." Ash then started kissing Serena neck slowly and he tried to run his fingers through her hair before realising it was still braided from last night. Serena undid her hair allowing him to continue. They were then interrupted by a knock at the door Ash let out a groan of frustration then went to answer it before Serena said.
"Ash. You might want to put some clothes on before answering the door." Ash was standing in the middle of the room completely naked.
"Good idea. Maybe you should to." Serena was also naked and so the two of them started to get dressed quickly, Ash threw on the nearest clothes he could find; there was another knock at the door. "Just a minute." Ash shouted. He was fully dressed, in the time it took Serena to put on her underwear. "What's taking so long?" He asked.
"I'm choosing." She replied quickly.
"Well, choose faster or go hide in the bathroom." Serena gave in and went into the bathroom.
Ash opened the door to find Grace there. "Morning." He said trying to seem as normal as possible.
"Good morning Ash. We are about to have breakfast, I came up to see if you two would like to join us."
"Sure we'll be down in a few minutes."
"Good. Where is Serena?" Grace asked, unsure why her daughter hadn't said hello.
"She's in the bathroom." Ash replied.
"Okay, see you in a few minutes." With that Grace went back downstairs and Ash closed the door.
Serena asked through the door. "Can I come out now?"
"Yes." She opened the door and walked over to him.
"Well, that was close."
"Tell me about it. We should probably go down for some breakfast."
"Sure." With that Serena got dressed into a dark green tank top and a white skirt. The two of them went downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning Serena. Did you sleep we…" Grace stopped when she saw her daughter's hand. "What is that?" She asked pointing to the ring.
"Ash proposed to be last night." Serena told her mother with a huge grin on her face.
"And you said yes?" Grace couldn't believe it; she didn't think her daughter was so irresponsible.
"Well, yes. That's the usual protocol when the love of your life asks you to marry them."
While they were arguing Clemont ushered his sister outside so they could have some privacy.
"Ash why didn't you talk to me about this before you proposed to my daughter?"
"Because I thought that Serena was old enough to make decisions for herself."
"Well, she isn't. Not something this big. Serena I forbid you to marry Ash."
"You can't do that. I'm eighteen mom, I can make my own decisions." Grace placed her hand on her daughter's arm, however Serenashook it loose then ran outside.
Ash chased after her but lost her in the woods behind the Pokémon Centre. However he had an idea where she might go. Ash found the clearing where he had proposed to her last night. He found Serena there with her Milotic curled around her. She was stroking the Pokémon's coat. As Ash got closer he could hear that she was crying. The Pokémon noticed Ash before Serena did. When Serena turned around Ash could see she had taken the ring off and was holding it in her hands. Serena returned Milotic to her Pokeball and stood up. Ash walked up to her and hugged her, afterwards he wiped the tears away and said. "Everything is going to be okay."
"Really Ash, how is it going to be okay? My mom thinks I'm making a huge mistake and she's got a point, we're eighteen it's too young to get married." She said still crying.
"While you're thinking about what our parents are saying think about what Red told us. Nothing in the world is as important as being with the person you love and I'm not going to let your mom's disapproval prevent me from being with you." She placed her head against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. "And besides I'm not saying we get married now, I just want you to know how much you mean to me and that I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you to." Serena said. She had stopped crying.
"Then that settles it. We are going to remain engaged and your mom is just going to have to accept that." As he said that kissed her. Then he put the ring back on her finger and said "We should probably go back now."
"No. I want to stay here with you."
"Okay." He sat down beside her and she rested her head on his shoulder. She looked at her ring once more.
"When did you develop and eye for jewellery?" She asked.
"It wasn't hard I just imagined you with a ring on and kept changing it until it looked right."
"How did you get it here?"
"The car that brought your mom also brought a few things for me which included your presents and my suit."
"You looked very handsome last night."
"Thank you. But that was not my main goal; that was to make you the most beautiful woman in Kalos. Which I also did, although I didn't have to do much." He kissed her, she moved so she was sitting in his lap with her legs around his torso. She kissed him and ran her hands through her short jet black hair. He kept his lips pressed against hers until there was a cough from behind. They both turned to see Grace standing there with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face. Serena climbed off her fiancé and the two of them stood up.
"Well that's very cute, but I mean it Serena you're not marrying him." Grace said.
"What is your problem with me?" Ash asked taking offense to the fact Grace was so against him marrying her daughter.
"Ash, it's nothing personal it's just that you're both eighteen. You don't what you want yet." She told them.
"I've been on my adventure for over eight years, until two months ago the only thing I wanted was to become the world's most powerful trainer. But then I realised what I truly wanted was to be with Serena."
"Mom, it's true all I want is to be with Ash. You're right I don't have a plan for the future but what I do know is that it will be with Ash."
Grace let out a sigh then said "Okay. I'm not happy about it but I can tell that you two are in love and when that happens nothing your mom says is going to change that. I hope you will two will be happy together. Now come back to the Pokemon Centre, you need to have breakfast." Ash and Serena nodded then all three of them went back to the Pokemon Centre where Clemont and Bonnie were waiting.
"Hey guys." Clemont said when he saw them all. They spent the next ten minutes enjoying their breakfast.
After they had eaten Bonnie asked "So when are you two getting married?"
"Yeah Ash, when are we getting married?" Serena looked at her fiance.
"Well...when do you want to get married?" Ash asked
Grace was watching her daughter closely while she replied. "Well, there's no rush. I think we should wait until you have beaten the Kalos league."
"Okay, when I beat the Kalos league." After they had agreed that, the car returned to pick up Grace and take her back home.
"You have to leave already?" Serena asked.
"I'm afraid so. I have things that I need to take care of. Bye sweetie." Grace kissed her daughter on the forehead then climbed into the car.
"Bye Mom." After everyone had said their goodbyes the group then went back to the Pokemon centre to discuss their plans.
"Well we're still quite a way away from the next gym." Clemont told them.
"Well, I guess we should head out soon then." Ash suggested wanting to win his next badge as soon as possible.
"Okay." Serena agreed. " So, shall we meet back here in twenty minutes then go." they all then went back to their rooms and started packing.
"Why do you think your mom changed her mind?" Ash asked while placing a red T-shirt into his ruksack.
"I don't know I guess she saw that we are in love and then she realised that she could spend the next goodness knows how long arguing with us about it or she could just accept it."
"Okay, I'm glad that she understands."
"Oh she doesn't actually want us to be married she just knows that she can't stop it so she's going to wait untill our relationship ends then she can say I told you so.
"Really, your mom is that..." Ash had no word to describe the way his fiancee was making her mother sound.
"Devoius, plotting, selfish. I know she has no faith in me. She never has. Now she thinks that whatever I do will eventually blow up in my face." Serena let out a huge sigh as she said this.
Ash walked over to her a placed his arms around her, kissed her on her forehead and looked into her beautiful sky blue eyes and told her. "Well I believe in you and more importantly I believe in us. Your mother's dissaproval and lack of belief in us is never going to change that."
Serena said nothing she just looked at Ash. She could tell that Ash just thought that's who her mother was. But she hadn't always been like this. "Ash there's something I have to tell you. About my parents, well more specifically my father." Ash had only asked about Serena's father once, it was when Ash had first come to terms with Red being his father. When he asked Serena about him Ash could tell by the reaction and the way she avoided the question that it was a very nervey topic and he has left it alone since.
"Okay, what is it?" He asked.
"When I was seven I started to notice that my parents would go into a different room and then they would come out looking very angry. I think the reason they sent me to the camp where I first met you was so they could at least try to work things out between them. It didn't work." Serena was trying to maintain a straight face but she started to cry. "When I came home my mom was waiting with a sealed envelope." Serena walked over to her bag a pulled out an old envelope out. She gave it to Ash. "Read it."
Ash open it and inside it there was a single A4 sheet of paper. On which was a hand written letter to Serena he could see that some of the words were smudged he guessed probably from tears, whether they were Serna's or her father's he had no clue. He read the words that had carefully been written on the page.
Serena.
By the time that you get this you will be back from Professor Oak's camp, and I won't be there. It pains me to write these words and deep in my heart I want to tell you these things to your face. However that isn't possible. You are only eight but I know that you understand a lot more than you sometime let on. I know that you have seen your mom and I fighting these last few months. We both love you very much and please understand that it was nobody's fault, but your mother and I have decided to separate. I have no idea where I will go so your mother and I decided it would be best for you if you stayed with her, for the time being anyway. I know you kiddo, you will do great things and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I will always love you.
Dad.
Ash looked up from the note and stared at her. He was speechless all Serena said was "I never heard from him again, he just vanished."
Having grown up without a father Ash empathised with her although she knew that what she went through was worse, loosing someone can demolish a person.
"Why do you keep it with you?" Ash asked
"I don't know, when I was setting off on my journey and I was packing I was looking round my room for things to take with me and when I came to the letter I put it in the bag without thinking about it." Serena then walked over to him and leaned her head against his chest. She soon felt the comfort of his arms around her body and she started to relax. She hadn't realised how tense this conversation had made her. Serena spent the next few minutes silently in Ash's embrace she felt his chest rise and fall against her head. The door opened behind them and Clemont walked in and began to say something before he noticed the situation. Ash turned his head and mouthed the words 'five minutes' Clemont nodded then left.
Ash understood why she had showed it to him, she was giving reason to her mother's claims that it will never work. Ash didn't know how old Grace is but she looked like he couldn't have got married much older than Ash and Serena are now. For the first time since he first thought of proposing to her, he started to doubt whether this was the right decision. Serena then walked out of his arms and returned to packing. Ash walked into the bathroom. He didn't need to, he just wanted a minute alone to sort out his thoughts.
Ash sat down on the floor and rested his back against the bath, he placed his head in his hands and started to think about what he should do. He started to think about all the things that he loved about Serena. He loved her smile, the way it was so contagious that when he saw her happy he couldn't help smiling aswell. He loved how she would let him in on whatever was troubling her because she loved him and trusted him with all her heart. He loved the way she would always cheer him on no matter what he was doing. He loved the way she looked, her small stature and long honey coloured hair. Thinking of all these things about her made Ash happy. However he knew that he wouldn't stop randomly questioning his affection for her untill he tried to think of some reasons why they shouldn't get married. Ash did however he could only come up with small petty things that everyone does. For instance the fact the she still doubted the lenghts that he would go to for her. After a while Ash stopped, the only reason that was continually in his mind was the fact the neither his ir her parents had remained married. However Ash knew he wasn't Red, and he saw first hand that Serena wasn't her mother and therefore there was no point worrying about that. Apart from that he had no reasons to doubt that getting married was a bad choice. Ash got up and left the bathroom. He found Serena sitting on the bed.
"Ready to go?" She asked smiling, in that smile any last doubts that Ash had were gone. He knew deep in his heart that he loved this woman and there was nothing that was going to stop him from marrying her. However he didn't want her to know that he had doubted it in the first place, so he simply replied.
"Yeah." Ash picked up his bag then walked over to Serena and offered his hand to help her up and she placed her hand in his. The two then walked out of the room still holding hands and met the siblings downstairs.
"Ready?" Clemont asked. Ash nodded. "Okay then. On with the adventure." With that the four of them left the Pokemon centre on their way to Ash's next gym battle.
