A pile of books and a charged phone, with one notification on it from Serena, alongside his regular gear, which constituted of a map, Pokeballs, his party of Pokemon that he planned to take with him, his bag, and his trusted Pokemon partner Pikachu perched on his shoulder, and finally, his cap, which he grabbed and fitted onto his head. He then brushed down his clothes shoulder section, and then pulled his clothes down on his body, so they would straighten out, caught on his shoulders.

Ash glanced at himself in a mirror and grinned. He looked like a traveler. Like he enjoyed it. He had been longing to get back into this sort of outfit for two years. It was an outfit very similar to his Kalos outfits appearance, but it was a darker shade of blue, and had a dark outline around the edges of the clothes, like the sleeves and collar. His mother had sewed him the outfit when she learned of his trip to Kalos, and then onto Igneous. The outfit sort of reminded him of his Sinnoh outfit with how dark it was, but he didn't mind too much. He liked it.

The 17 year old trainer made a fist with his hand and pumped it in front of him. "Right."

He grabbed his phone quickly, answering the notification. A message. It was time stamped to the previous night, not long after he had sent the original message. He had gotten home and passed out by the time the message had been sent, and had been too busy the next morning packing up to answer it. Now he had some down time, he could finally see the response.

Ash read through the message and laughed. "Seems like Serena is pretty excited, Pikachu."

Pikachu tilted it's head to the left slightly, curious as to the messages contents. Ash showed Pikachu, and he started laughing too.

"Ash laughed again along with Pikachu, before scanning over the message again, with a warm smile. He was happy she had sent this. "At least now we know she's meeting us at Lumiouse city. Didn't expect her to be traveling with Miette, that's for sure."

His partner Pokemon smiled at him, knowingly.

"Uh, Pikachu? What's with the smile?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow.

Pikachu didn't even blink, nor react in any way. It took Ash a few seconds to figure it out.

"Oh give it a rest, Pikachu." Ash sighed, embarrassed. "You aren't gonna let up, are you?"

Pikachu giggled to himself.

"I swear I'll find a way to force you into your Pokeball if you keep this up..." Ash sighed, with mild irritation and humour, packing up the rest of his belongings. Although he kept it quiet, Ash had secretly developed a strong emotional attachment to Serena. The only real issue with that was he had no idea what to do with this attachment. He had considered it to just be camaraderic concern and worry for one of his close friends, no different to Dawn, or Brock. It had only been recently, within the last couple of months that he had learned that this wasn't the case. It hadn't been long enough for him to base all his actions around it regarding her, or even think twice about seeing her again. He didn't feel embarrassed by the prospect of seeing her again.

It was the prospect of what Pikachu, who had picked up on his feelings towards the performer months ago, was implying that embarrassed him.

Did Ash know what to do with these emotions? In all honesty, he had no idea. He really couldn't say. It all seemed simple in his head, although he admitted he could be dense, so that wasn't worth much. He knew what Pikachu was trying to say he should do. There were times he agreed with his partner, and times he disagreed. He remembered once time, at the dead of night, he had spent a long time thinking about it, rattling his brain for a good few hours, before he felt a surge of energy, telling him to call or text or just inform her in any way he could about these emotions. Once he had his phone in his hand and had started writing a message, he had paused. He realised that if he was going to do this someday, Serena deserved far better than some message on a phone. And besides... All his energy and confidence had immediately been drained from him. He remembered another event where he had reached the opposite conclusion, that he could never like Serena, but that one had lasted less then thirty seconds. No matter how hard he had tried to convince himself, it had been like trying to knock down a brick wall using a drinking straw. He had spent the rest of that particular night depressed and angry at himself that he had even attempted that. He had even, out of the blue, sent Serena a good night message, although she had admitted it hadn't been all that late where she was, so that plan had backfired.

Now, Ash felt his nails dig deeper into his skin. Without his knowledge, his hand had become a fist.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked, concerned, worried it had upset his trainer.

"Huh? Sorry, Pikachu, I'm not angry or anything. I'm... I don't know." Ash sighed. "Maybe you're right about Serena, buddy. I dunno. But hey, that's not what we should be focusing on right now." Ash turned to his luggage, checking to make sure he had everything. Satisfied, he packed everything into his backpack. He quickly reached for another book from the shelf. He had become quite the reader over the past two years. It was something interesting to do while waiting for Pokemon or certain tasks to be completed in between training. He checked everything else, and then, satisfied, left the room. He then quickly ducked back into his room, grabbing an empty Pokeball he had left of the desk before dashing back out the room again.


He encountered his mother as he made his way to the door. She had waited for him before he set off. She had prepared a small bag for him, filled with things he could use during his stay at the airport, as well as something on the plane. Spare change of clothes, some snacks, and a new book she had gotten him without his knowledge. "You're all ready to go then, Ash?" She asked.

"Yeah, I guess I am." Ash confirmed, with a smile.

"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?"

"Yeah, Mom, I know. Don't worry, I'll stay safe."

"Professor Oak called. He said he'll come and take you to the airport in a few minutes. I was hoping we could have a small talk before you go." Delia told Ash.

"Small talk?" Ash asked. "Sure, that's fine I guess. What'd you want to talk about?"

"You've been at home for two years. And it's been absolutely fantastic having you back home. I've seen you mature so much, and I couldn't be prouder of you." Delia told her son, whom she had made blush. "I knew you'd want to get out of this small town as soon as you could. But... You seem... Less enthusiastic than I thought you would be."

Ash looked at his mother before sighing. How could she be this observant?

"Is something wrong?"

Ash sighed again. "Can I ask you something?"

Delia flinched for half a second. She hadn't honestly expected him to say anything other than that he was fine. She recovered quickly. "Anything."

Ash explained everything to his mother, start to finish, about his supposed feelings towards his old childhood friend, the confusion he felt, and had even included Pikachu's perspective. His mother didn't pry. She didn't ask him anything he felt uncomfortable talking about. In fact, she didn't ask anything at all. She just listened.

"So, that's it." Ash said, concluding. "So... I guess what I'm asking... Is... Is there something wrong with me, or... I dunno."

Delia smiled. "I honestly was beginning to doubt I'd ever see the day."

"Um... What do you mean?"

"Ash... That's a crush. That's all that is."

"A crush?" Ash blushed. He wasn't sure if he had been hoping or fearing this answer.

"Ash... I haven't met this Serena girl yet, at least, not after your summer camp. To be honest, I'm surprised she found her way back into you life, but it's clear to me that you care about her a lot. Even if you can't see it, I can see that she means a lot to you. From what you've described to me about her, I'm certain she has these feelings towards you."

"How'd you figure that out?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow, confused.

"How do you think me and your father acted before we got married?" Delia sighed. "Unfortunately, it looks like you've inherited his obliviousness as well as his denseness."

"Thanks for the confidence boost, mom." Ash said, sarcastically.

"Your father managed to break out of those habits around your age. This Serena girl... She returned something so simple, so unimportant, but she kept it so close to her for so long." Delia explained. As she did so, Ash looked to his right. The handkerchief Serena had kept for so long. Now, just something he had casually placed when he got back home. He picked it up, and held it in his hand, gently. "I don't know what I'd of personality she has, or what colour her hair is, or what her sense of fashion is, but I can tell you one thing from just looking at that handkerchief."

"What's that?" Ash asked.

"She's loyal. She won't hurt you if you took the risk to reciprocate her feelings."

Ash looked at the old handkerchief. It was old, and was sort of ruined now. Still as clean and clear as it was when he got it back from Serena, but he wouldn't trust himself to actually use it for anything anymore. It's sentimental value suddenly increased tenfold.

His mother smiled warmly at her son. "You care a lot for her, don't you?"

Ash went a light shade of red. "I..." He wondered just how much his mother had thought about this.

"I never thought I would see the day when you of all people had a crush on someone." Delia smiled, beaming with pride, embarrassing Ash, although not meaning to. "You'll have to show me what she looks like when you get the chance, okay?"

"You talk like she's my girlfriend already." Ash muttered, with a faint smile. Something about that idea was nice. While he was happy he had asked his mother about this, he still wasn't entirely sure.


The Kantoean airport was often a busy place. Lots of trainers flew out to different regions from here, many with similar motives as Ash, to train Pokemon and become the strongest. Many of these trainers were going to Igneous, lured by the promise of challenge and strong Pokemon. Seeing all these trainers in the airport gave Ash a surge of energy. He would have challenged some of the trainers there to battle if he could have. However, concerned about missing his flight, Ash decided to lean on the side of caution. He wished that airports had arenas near the terminals to avoid that, but then again, he also imagined that that would cause a ridiculous amount of damage to the airport, civilians and aeroplanes that would be around, so his idea had become redundant in the same thought process.

His mind was moving rapidly, ideas popping into his head and then leaving in minutes. He felt a weird sort of adrenaline. He felt like punching something. Like he needed something to vent against. He didn't know. Anxiety had taken place, rivalling his excitement.

"Pika pi?" Pikachu tapped Ash's forehead, trying to get his trainers attention.

"Huh? What is it Pikachu?" Ash asked. His Pokemon had sensed the conflicting emotions in his trainer. Ash noticed this only after asking. "Sorry buddy. I don't know what's wrong with me today."

"Pika?"

"I thought talking to my mom would help me sort out these ideas in my head, but now I'm not sure if it made it better or worse." Ash explained. "It's like half of my mind is telling me to say something once we get there, and the other half is telling me to just go straight to Igneous, you know what I mean? Like I'm at war with myself, if that makes sense. Nerves I suppose. But I've never had an issue with nerve before." He felt like screaming, and when he was younger, he almost certainly would have done. Instead, he just signed. "Sorry buddy. I'm fine now. I'll figure stuff out when we get there."

His partner nodded, sorry that he had given his trainer that smile back at his house, wondering if all this would have been avoided if he hadn't done so.

"Come on. Looks like our flight isn't gonna be here for a while. The heck with playing it safe, I need to vent some frustration." Ash said, heading outside, looking for an opponent to fight.


Hope we all had a good Christmas / preferred holiday break everyone! I myself received quite frankly a disturbing amount of manga, DVDS, and games on steam. I had a fun Christmas, and a nice break from college and writing, so now I'm back, ready to write and start my year of creativity!

Also, coincidentally, happy Amourshipping day!

Any of you paying attention to this story will notice that each chapter is named after an emotion or feeling, and this is an intended choice. I want each chapter to focus on a certain emotion someone would feel in these situations. I've had situations like this, so all the confusion and frustration that comes from this. So, I'm hoping to turn what was my heartbreak into something heartwarming for you all.

Also, since I'm talking about my year of creativity, I'm starting a new YouTube series, in which I'm looking at the entertainment industry as a whole, giving my onlook onto the industry as a whole. The first video I'm going to work on is my favourite RPG, the Mass Effect Trilogy. If you wanna join me there, my link is on my profile. Just in case your interested.

At any rate, for Amourshipping week, I'll be working on one shots if I can. I'll get back to working hope you enjoyed this chapter everyone. I'll see you in the next chapter! See you, and have fun in 2016!