Ash always had mixed opinions about airplanes.

On the one hand, he found them incredibly dull. There was next to nothing to do on them. Aside read and brush up on knowledge of his destination, he supposed, but still, there wasn't much exciting. He found reading interesting, not exciting. He thought it was a shame most planes didn't have battlefields, but he knew that was a recipient for disaster, so he didn't allow that one to frustrate him. He'd much rather be bored than crash in the middle of the Kalosean sea.

He glanced over his reading material. His mother had bought him a couple of new books. It was something he had noticed. His growing interest in books had defiantly been something his mother had approved off, almost overly so. She was quite happy to pick up any books Ash had even briefly glanced at. Still, Ash wasn't complaining. He picked up one of the books. The cover read "Pokemon Adventures", and showed a picture of two of the books main characters on the front cover. He smiled. He enjoyed reading this series.

Flipping through it, he smiled. He thought a lot of the situations the two main characters got themselves into was weirdly similar to some of the adventures he and his friends had gotten into. Still, it was an interesting read. Although this did have an unintended side effect.

It was this, the other hand, the reason he didn't mind airplanes so much. He could research and read. The issue with this was that that always made him anxious to get to the destination, and made him unhappy to be on the plane all over again. It was like a cycle of annoyance Ash went through.

He paused for a second. He wondered when he had gotten into books so much.

"Must picked up the habit from working in Professor Oaks lab for two years." He muttered to himself. He wondered to himself, was he more mature than he was a couple of years ago? He still felt like he was the same, but felt like he had changed at the same time. Appearance wise, he hadn't changed much at all. Just gotten a bit taller, and maybe slightly more toned. He had received a very, very light tan, as a result of staying outside most of the time to help the Pokemon around the lab. That aside, his appearance was basically identical to two years ago. Ash noticed a thread of hair running next to eye. He smiled lightly. Maybe his hair was just a tiny bit longer than usual too.

Not that appearance had anything to do with maturity. A common misconception. He couldn't really judge that himself. He was able to restrain himself better, but he was really just as excitable as he was two years ago.

Ash looked out of the window of the airplane. He could see two blues. A dark blue, waves rippling though it. An endless horizon of the darker, navy blue, was all he could see as he looked to the centre of the Earth. No land was visible. Only this grand ocean. The Kalosian sea had always been described as a beautiful sight. He remembered a quote he had heard about it while working in Kanto. 'The sea of Kalos, the ocean of excitement, of hope, to those across those waves, we wish the peace we enjoy. A sea of hope and beauty. Across it, others enjoy it. We look forward to the day we meet them." Ash doubted that quote had been made when the person writing was on an airplane. To be honest, he doubted that quote was anything less than a couple of hundred years old. Even that was being generous. He knew it had been written before the natives of Kalos had made contact with any regions across the sea. He didn't remember when the natives made contact with other regions. He knew in terms of history, it was recent. Then again, a thousand years was considered recent in the grand scheme of history, even though generations had come and gone in that time. He shrugged. Whenever it was written, it was a nice quote.

"Hey, Pikachu." Ash said. His partner Pokemon was resting on his trainers lap, half awake, half asleep, although it hadn't quite gotten to sleep yet. "You excited?"

Pikachu sat up, groggily, and tilted it's head in confusion. "Pika?" Pikachu had been excited. Surely that was a given?

Ash shrugged. "I dunno. I suppose I'm just thinking about what we're gonna do when we get there." He leaned back in his seat. "I know I keep saying it, but I never expected Serena and Miette to get on like they are now. I kinda hoped so. It'd definitely have made things easier for us to deal with whenever we ran into her." He smiled lightly. "It'll be nice to see Miette too. Didn't expect to run into her again... Well, ever, really."

Pikachu nodded sleepily in agreement. Slightly bored.

"I bet Serena is still practicing for her performances, huh, Pikachu?" Ash suggested with a smile. "You think she's learned anything major since we last saw her?"

Pikachu's eyes had closed and had fallen asleep. Ash had said this so many times, it could recite it from memory. Ash noticed this. He smiled lightly. "Sorry, buddy." He was just excited. Ash couldn't think of a better word to describe how he was feeling right now. Just excited. He wanted to see everyone again. And he would get to see Serena as soon as he stepped off the plane.


"Serena, you really need to calm down." Miette sighed, leaning on one side of the doorframe, her arms folded, struggling to keep her eyes open. Not out of tire, but out of exasperation.

Serena had woken up that morning, wide awake, instantly, and hadn't moved from a seat in front of the mirror in her room, armed with a brush, hail gel, some sort of glamour set, and an extreme feeling of OCD and paranoia since. The blonde Kalosian girl didn't even respond in any way to her friend, instead, attacking her hair with another dollop of gel.

"You're going to ruin your appearance if you keep this up, not make it better." Miette yawned, this time out of tiredness, small tears welling up in her eyes as she did so. "If he wasn't bothered by appearance two years ago, what makes you think she will be now?"

"I don't know!" Serena said, panicked. "He could have - I don't know - gone under some sort of awakening?"

Miette just raised an eyebrow, and leaned so that she was in view of Serena's mirror. "Somehow I doubt it."

Serena didn't stop. Miette sighed. She walked over to the stressed performer and rested her hand on her shoulder. "Relax. Trust me, no one feels adequate judging themselves. There's a reason artists and writers ask for critique on their work. Here's mine for you - You're trying way too hard."

Serena sighed. "I... I know. I can't help it."

Miette smiled. "I knew you liked Ash, but seeing you so stressed is one, adorable, and two, heartwarming." Serena went a light shade of red. "Come on, I'll help you out."

Serena sighed. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she had really gone overboard. She didn't even want to describe what she a mess she had made. "Are we gonna have enough time?..."

"Easily."

Serena sighed. "Okay. I trust you."

Miette grinned. "I'll bet you never expected to say that when we first met." Miette said, arming herself with a brush and wet wipe. She wasn't exactly gentle with either, but in her defence, Serena had caked on so much that it was impossible to do anything without being a bit rough with it.

"Ouch!" Serena yelped, gritting her teeth. "Evidently misplaced trust."

"Not my fault you put so much on."

"Just... Hurry up, please."

"Yes ma'am."

Once done with the unpleasant part of getting all the unneeded gel and glamour off, Miette applied a very small amount of gel onto Serena's hair, and spread it all across her hair, so that it ended just before reading the ends of her hair. She didn't bother with any of the glamour. She didn't think it suited Serena. It was odd for her to even reach for it. It wasn't even necessary. Instead, Miette reached for a bow that was on Serena's desk, and held it in front of Serena's forehead. She moved it left and right, looking for a good place to apply it. Undecided, she tried around the back of Serena's head, using it as a sort of ponytail. She bit her lip, unable to choose which looked cuter. "You have a preference?"

Serena um'd and ah'd for a few seconds, before she made her choice. "I kinda liked the one on my forehead."

Miette complied, and applied the bow to her friends hair on the right side of her forehead. "There, that's all."

"That's it?"

"Yep."

Serena examined herself in the mirror. Miette had done such a little amount of work, yet it easily looked a thousand times better than what she had done. If the bow hadn't been included, you could have been forgiven for thinking Miette hadn't done anything at all.

"Believe me," Miette told Serena, basically reading her friends mind, "The more you put on, the less natural it looks. And seeing as Ash really doesn't care one way or the other, you'll be fine like this. I don't think he's even going to be expecting the bow. If I know him, he'll expect to see you the exact same as when you last saw him."

Serena sighed. "I suppose you're right."

"Although watching you flail is funny," Miette said, shrugging her shoulders with a smile, "It's seriously let down by seeing just how concerned you are about this."

Serena nodded in agreement. "I know. I don't know what's wrong with me..."

"Nothing's wrong with you." Miette said with a sigh. "Believe me, nothing is wrong with you. You've done this lots of times, you just did it in different ways." Miette grinned. "Remember that dance we all ended up in?"

Serena sighed. "Please don't remind me."

"You were so jealous, weren't you? Only then you didn't apply over a ton of glamour and try and grab Ash from dancing with me. I could see you, you know. You just bit your lips and fiddled with your fingers. Anyone else would have thought you suffered from anxiety."

"You're really observant when you want to be, huh?" Serena sighed, embarrassed.

"It worked out in the end for you though, right?" Miette asked. "You ended up dancing with Ash for longer than anyone else in the room."

Serena blushed lightly, but fondly at the memory. She had enjoyed that event, no questions asked. The only regret she had had was that she hadn't managed to dance with Ash for the entire night.

Miette smiled. "Doesn't matter what happens, you two always seem to get closer. Especially when I'm around."

Serena smiled. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me ." Miette said. "We've still got to get to the airport, right?"

"Yeah."

"Careful you don't end up turning heads."

"I'll only have you to blame."

"Was that a compliment?"

"Well... We'll see."

Miette shocked her head amused. "Maybe Ash will turn his head to you for once."


Well, this ends this chapter of Loyalty for you all, guys.

Extra large rant below. You've been warned.

I wonder how many of you noticed the Pokemon Adventures reference. Go, Hoenn Adventures crew!

This chapter was really supposed to focus on the prep time of a date that seems to be a popular thing in story writing, only in this case, Serena meeting Ash at the airport, and how little I honestly think it's needed. But that aside, the main writing technique I tried to work on here was the conversations. Dialogue tells you a lot about a character and their personality, and I always find when two distinct characters meet or reunite, you can see their personalities clash or kindle, and it's always an interesting experience for me, and one I like to explore a lot. You might have noticed I made Miette the voice of reason for Serena. Despite the confident personality she has in the show, based on her dialogue and interactions with Serena and other characters, the interpretation I got of her was ;

A ) Bi. (Hence my Fondant fanfic, and to those of you wondering, no, this is not the fondant fanfic, this is Amourshipping. It's in the title, so I'm not sure why anyone would expect anything else. She's in this fanfic because I like her character, and I didn't want Serena thinking to herself or talking to herself in her ever scene. In this fanfic, she's one of Serena's best friends. The banter that goes on between the two is akin to the kinds me and my friends have.) Weirdly specific thing to pick up on, but there it is.

B ) Somewhat insecure, and uses arrogance to hide it. She doesn't seem like the type to be arrogant. Confident, yes, but not arrogant. I picked up on this in her debut episode. Calm, confident and arrogant when she first met Serena, but as soon as a spanner was thrown into the works of her plan, she panicked. She recovered quickly, to keep up the facade around other people. That's what i got from that.

C ) An actually really nice person. Miette isn't the type to mock someone out of nowhere. I see this from the end of her episodes, usually when things are winding down. She acts much nicer to people after the competition is done.

Blimey, that was quite the rant, wasn't it? So, that's just there for those of you that need clarification on why Miettes here.

And I'd like to address a few people here.

Now, I've been quoted as being "The best Amour writer on ." Honestly, it's embarrassing, but thanks guys. This isn't me bragging, there's a point to this. People who message me like this often ask a couple of questions, but one common one has struck out at me. These are people who occasionally have written some stories on and other places, but they come to me to ask writing advice. Some of them, one books of their own.

I'd like to make my stance on writing fan fics and stories clear. I think writing a fanfiction is a hundred times harder than making a book up from scratch. Sure, you have the world and characters already made, but that's part of the issue. You've not got a lot of room to manoeuvre. You have to stick to the characters personalities and histories, you can't make up your own without coming across as disingenuous. (To me, anyway.) You're always trapped within some guidelines. Which is part of why I write. I want to be a cultural icon in writing, literature, gaming, manga, and other story driven mediums. I want to create worlds in which I make the rules, the characters, the concepts. Egomaniacal, maybe, but I want to inspire people. I want to make characters that inspire people to try harder, do better. The point of this rant, basically, to anyone on the fence about writing after reading this or, pretty much anything, just do it. (Reference not intended.) We need more writing and creativity in the world we live in. We live in w pretty bland world, so the more creativity we have, the better, by a god damn mile. I honestly don't consider myself to be a good writer. I consider myself to be decent at best, so I have a lot to improve on. Wonder how many of you noticed the critique quote by Miette.

So then, enough of my insufferable ranting. I'm amazed a lot of you guys actually read these things. I really should come up with a name for this part of the chapters. 123's rant corner? I work on it.

At any rate, if any of you DO actually write, draw, make videos, music, or create anything, send me a link to it. I'd love to see what you guys get up to. I hope you enjoyed the chapter "Worry". Next chapter will be the reunion of our favourite two adorable crushing idiots. Hope to see you then. Be sure to follow this one guys! See ya!