"...So you're telling me, Paul's just gone."

"Yes."

"Without a trace."

"Yes."

"And without saying a word to anyone."

"Yes!"

"...Yeah, that sounds like him." Ash informed Miette with a bemused grin at her concern for his location. "He would just straight up leave in the middle of the night. He left places without a word pretty much every time I saw him. Apparently that hasn't changed."

Miette looked a weird combination of depressed and amused at the same time. One thing was certain in that display, however. She was actually somewhat hurt. She thought they were friends at the very least.

"Hey, don't be upset." Ash tried to cheer her up, although he wasn't totally sure what to say. "He'll show up again, I promise. I seem to keep running into the guy, even if I don't want to."

Miette smiled weakly at Ash, although it was clear it hadn't helped her much. But then, really, what could Ash say to help her feel better? There wasn't much he could say to help her. Nothing he could really say that would cheer her up.

It was like when he had to leave Kalos for the first time, and he had had to tell Serena.

"Come on." He said to the blue haired baker, patting her on the shoulder. "We gotta get moving."

"Yeah... Yeah, I'll just be a moment." Miette said, turning back to her room to acquire her bag, her belongings, and any other essentials that were needed. She quickly ducked into her room. She shut the door behind her, needing a few moments to just process the information. She wasnt on the verge of tears, but she looked like she needed to get her head straight.

Ash decided it best to leave her to it. He could wait for her in the lobby with Serena. It was beat to give Miette a little space given the series of events, he decided. He made his way to the lobby alone, where he knew Serena was waiting. The plan was for him and Serena to pick up their partner Pokemon respectively, and carry on down the road. From there, they were going to head to a location known as Lilac Lake, given its self - explanatory name due to the high number of lilacs that sprouted in the summer months, thanks to the rays of heat from the sun. And it was especially hot this summer. Ash couldn't help but think a visit to a lake of all places might be a nice, cool, refreshing break. While he hadn't paid direct attention to it, he had it noted that this summer was one of the hottest he'd ever been in. So a visit to a lake, with cool, open air hitting him in the face, and a cold lake sounded like absolute heaven right now.

He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. It was already early, not long past 10Am, and it was already blistering warm. The thermometer read it at about 32 Celsius (roughly 86F), easily a scorching day in his native region. They definitely had a long walk ahead of them today, of that there could be absolutely no question. It was then that Ash thanked God for his cap. At least that would provide some shade for him. He'd take what little he could get today. Any was good in place of this days sun.

He made his way into the main reception, where a few trainers were still coming and going. Some were sat down, talking, discussing the tournament that had just gone down. Others were just arriving, using the place as a stop off point on their own various journeys. Some came in groups, while some came in alone. All of them seemed to be energised in some way, in spite of the heat, like they refused to give the heat the satisfaction of a victory. That, or they were climatized to this searing heat. Being born in a relativley cold region, Ash had to question, how anyone could climatize to this heat...

Indeed, it did look like Serena was relatively cool, compared to Ash. She noticed this and raised an eyebrow of concern. "Ash, are you okay?"

"Just a bit warm." He replied, sitting down heavily, and sighing. "I'm red hot."

"You're warm?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, this is a... Pretty cool spring day, actually..." Serena informed Ash, slightly reserved, but smiling still.

"You're kidding." Ash sighed heavily once again in a sort of frustration. "Urgh... I'm more used to cooler temperatures..."

"You didn't have an issue with the heat last time." Serena commented, remembering his first few journeys in the region. The temperature was higher, if she remembered correctly, but Ash had seemed to just shrug it off. Something had changed.

"I'd been traveling non stop for quite a while. I think I got used to it after spending a lot of time in tropical regions. Or at least more tropical regions than Kanto..." Ash took his cap off, and started to use it as a fan to cool himself down. This was heat that was bearable... But it made him a bit uncomfortable.

"Maybe we should all go to Aloha." Serena said jokingly with a small grin.

"Please, God no." Ash said with a chuckle. "I'll melt."

The two of them had fun, trading jokes and laughing between themselves. It was a stark contrast, Ash thought, to last night, where Serena had been very upset, and depressed about the state of affairs, to the point of shedding tears. Now, she was happy and bubbly in her personality. A much better, cuter personality, Ash thought. He decided he wouldn't bring up last night. There was no point in opening the wound. She seemed to have recovered from it, and had let out all her negative emotions that she had needed to, and that was enough for him. He wasn't sure if he had actually been a big help, but if he had helped at all, he was glad.

Now he was content to just talk to his friend and help her as needed. She seemed happy enough to just be talking to him too, so that was completely fine with the sweltering Kantoean.

"Hey, Ash, where's Miette?" Serena asked, glancing around the room, looking for her blue haired friend, only to find her nowhere. "Shouldn't che be here by now?"

"She said she was just grabbing a few things... I don't know whats taking her so long." Ash said, raising an eyebrow. He found that definitely curious. She shouldn't have taken this long. It was possible that she was just taking her time, but Ash felt it was unlikely. "Want me to go check on her?"

"I guess so. I'll stay and collect our Pokemon if Nurse Joy calls us up." Serena said with a nod. While she would prefer to speak with Ash more, it was more important to make sure their friend was okay. Even if she could be a pain in the neck to deal with.

Ash nodded also, and forced himself to his feet. He threw his cap back on his head, and made his way towards his entry point once again. He wondered to himself, would he ever tell Serena that he liked her? Where this thought had come from was absolutely no where, appearing from the crypts of his head and heart, but he still found himself dwelling on the subject. He had been back in Kalos only a week and a few days, yet he was dwelling in subjects he had never wondered on when around her. Part of his heart told him to go for it. He took note that he hadn't asked, nor had anyone forced her, to wait for him to show up again. She never mentioned it to him in the two years, and didn't seem to notice anyone else... But his head told him that now he was just being arrogant. He had barely been here a week, and he was going to throw that at her? Besides, the idea that Serena would want someone who not only lived halfway across the planet, but abandoned her?...

Ash found himself outside their room. He sighed. "Damn it, brain." He muttered to himself, cursing his own thinking before he walked into the room.

Looking inside, he saw Miette just sat down on the sofa, with all her things to her side. Ahe wasn't doing much. She had her hands carrying her head as she used them as a rest, amd ahe had been staring into space. She had been about to get up when Ash had opened to door. She looked to him with a look of surprise that he was there.

"You alright?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Yeah." Miette said, standing up and facing the Kantoean, having recovered from her initial shock rapidly. "Yeah. Sorry. I just needed a minute, thats all."

"Oh. Sorry." Ash apologised for interrupting. "Serena wanted me to check on you."

Miette nodded, and looked away, to the window. Walking over to it, she placed her hand on the glass softly, and sighed.

"Are you okay?..." Ash asked, worried for her for a moment. She seemed down. Depressed almost.

"Yeah. I was just thinking... I guess I'm still out of it." The blue haired baker replied to her friend. She didn't look at him though. She just looked outside the glass. Her hands met behind her back, and rested themselves on her upper hip. "It was... Quite the deep think."

"Miette?"

"Im sorry." She apologised again, a bit more humorously this time. "I've been in my own world for a while." She looked at Ash now, showing a smile on her face now. "I've decided."

Ash looked puzzled at the Kalosian. She wasn't making any sort of sense. Then again, he was used to people talking in riddles, cryptic with their words, needless as it may be to the situation. "What have you decided?"

"I'm making sure you and Serena are an item before you're done in Kalos."

Ash felt himself nearly fall over, tripping up on absolutely nothing whatsoever, and his face burning up, only aided by the extreme heat he felt inside this building on such a boiling day. He also made some sort of involuntary yelp in surprise, his eyes widening, and then immediately narrowing to normal again rapidly. "You're going to do what?" He put special emphasis on the word 'What'.

"You heard me." Miette replied with a smile on her face. "I'm making sure you two are together before you run off again."

"This seems a bit just - What?" Ash tried to respond, but couldn't quite articulate the words he required to use to make his response. Miette had thrown that at him out of absolutely no where, and she seemed absolutely serious. Not a hint of teasing or bluffing. She was actually serious about this.

Miette looked outside, glancing at a fountain that spat water into the air around it, and let the gravity to pull the water back into its pond, allowing the cycle to repeat. On a hot summers day, Miette could only see that as a waste of resources. But it still looked pretty. "Someone told me I shouldn't interfere with someones love life until I know everything thats going on. A foreign influence in someones love life that doesn't know everything they can about the relationship could just make it so much worse. It could even doom it. But I know everything about yours two's now. Or, at least everything thats important about it."

"And whats that?" Ash asked, feeling somewhat annoyed that Miette claimed that she knew all there was to know about his and Serena's relationship.

"I know you two are in love with each other." A crimson blush appeared on Ash's face. Miette's blunt statement had thrown him off. And Ash knew she was right, about his feelings towards Serena at least. Miette grinned to herself and turned to face Ash. As she began listing off her points, she raised a finger for each point for emphasis. "Thats all there is to know. It took me a while to figure out, but I get it now. Gender, region, hometown, colour, faith, past, it doesn't matter. Theres only one thing that matters, and its the most fundamental thing, so painfully obvious that I'm kicking myself for not realising what they meant sooner." She jabbed a finger into Ash's chest, and smirked. "You love her, don't you?"

Silence.

"I thought so." Miette took her finger from Ash's chest and grinned in her own tiny victory, walking past Ash, and into the corridor, a confident stride in her step, while Ash just stared at where she used to be, in shock, lagging behind the rest of reality for a few seconds. Once he caught up, Miette smirked once again. "Well, I'm not gonna let you walk out of Kalos without making sure you two know how the other feels."

Miette then turned on her heel and walked down the hall. "Come on, lets get going."

"Huh?" R-Right, right." Ash stuttered, still reeling from the strike after strike from Miette, jogging to catch up with her. "Wait, are you actually serious about this?!"

"Deadly serious." Miette responded with a confident response, and a sprint in her step. She certainly was acting cheerful.

"Don't I get a say in this?!"

"Uh, yeah. You get to choose what you say to Serena when you confess to her."

"Wait a second, Miette." ash said, stopping her by placing a hand in her shoulder and holding her back. "I only just got back into Kalos. Ive been here a week, and - "

"You think she'll care about that?" Miette asked, tilting her head to her side, so it rested on her left shoulder.

"Assuming..." Ash tried to speak, but was cut off again.

"Ash, listen to me. You're nervous. Scared. I know. I would be. I was. And it ended poorly for me. And now I know what that's like, I can't sit back in good faith and watch you two drift apart, and tear your mind to pieces thinking of the 'What ifs'. I already know... Am very, very, very confident she feels the same way about you. But lets assume she doesn't." A very heavy strain was put on he word 'Assume'. She isn't going to cut ties with you over something like that. That isn't who she is." Miette sighed. "Look, I was heated there, I admit. I won't do anything without your say... But you need to face this."

Ash sighed heavily, and considered for a for moments. "You're right... You're right, you're right." He cursed himself. Two years, and he still wasn't as mature as he thought he was. At his core, he still was the oblivious teenager he had been when he first entered Kalos. He sighed deeply again. "I gotta face this sometime, huh..."

"I'll help." Miette said. "But i don't think you'll need it."

"Thanks..." Ash said, smiling at Miette. He knew he had to do this. This would either end perfectly, or horrifically. This was a best case - worst case scenario. No middle ground.

'Perhaps if I spoke to him more, he would have told me he was leaving early. Maybe he wouldn't have. I don't know. I may never know until I see him again. But he was right.' Miette thought to herself. 'Well, I'll make sure these two get that message, Paul. Ill make sure these two know the other one loves them if its the last thing I do here.'