"Ouch..."
Serena recovered first after the fall from the top of the canyon, her head still spinning. It had to have been hours since the attack from that other attackers Drapion had knocked them over the edge. It was pitch black, and Serena's vision was very limited, to only a few meters in front of her.
"Owwwww... My head..." She muttered to herself, clutching her forehead. She had a splitting headache, which felt like it was splitting her head in two. She forced herself to ignore it, despite the throbbing pain, and made herself take stock.
The first question was this: How the hell was she okay?
Okay was relative, but she didn't have a single serious injury. Nothing broken, nothing that required aid. Maybe a few cuts and tears of her skin that hurt her, a small bit of bleeding from those wounds, but for the most part, she was completely fine. It was only at that moment that she took note on what she had fallen on.
It was like a cushion of fauna and overgrown grass and plants. They had grown on top of one another over what had to have been multiple years, and that had broken their fall.
Their...
"Ash!" Serena almost yelled out loud, and looked around, frantically for him.
She didn't have to look too far. Ash was only a few meters away from her, also having landed on this grassy cushion. He was still unconscious, however, and his injuries looked a bit harsher than hers did. He had cuts on his face, a few bruises, and a long mark down his right arm.
Serena quickly moved herself over to the Kantoean, and looked to see what she could do. She shook him by his shoulders lightly, attempting to get a response out of him. "Ash! Ash, are you okay?!" When she didn't get a response, she became concerned. "Please wake up Ash..."
Tears stung her eyes, and ran down her cheeks. Her worry was getting the better of her rational thinking. She was concerned, scared for Ash's well-being, and there was very little she could do for him. To help him, she needed to get him to a hospital, or a Pokemon Centre, somewhere that had the equipment, and someone with the proper training to actually help. Serena had neither. She had to wipe away her tears before she could focus on doing what little she could for Ash.
"Okay... Okay... I just... I - I need a flashlight..." She said between her sniffled as she dried her eyes as best she could. She forced herself to check through Ash's bag, searching for her required equipment. In the dark, she had to feel for something that felt cylindrical. It took her a few moments, but she was able to find something that fitted the description. Running her hands along it, she felt it expand at one side, and the glass on it. She was certain of this objects nature now.
She pulled it from the bag, and felt along the shaft of the object for a switch. Upon finding it, and after sending a quick prayer to Arceus that the thing still had power, she slipped it on, and, her wish granted, the light came on, shining a beam of light onto the wall around her.
This minor success was quickly met with a soul crushing defeat. After Serena congratulated her on her victory, she shone the flashlight around her immediate location.
She found herself in a sort of enclosed cave. Around her there was nothing but rocky walls, a rocky ceiling, and a soft, cushiony garden-like floor. She and Ash were essentially encased in a small room.
"What?..." Serena barely even had the energy to be surprised or scared at this point. She didn't even bother to question why, or how, this had happened. She could just have one of her Pokemon break it down. Perhaps Pancham... Except when she reached for her Pokeballs, she realized, they were with her bag, up topside, along with Ash's. They really were trapped here.
Relaxing herself, Serena knew that there was nothing she could do about that right now. She had no idea how this had happened, but this was what she had to work with. She could only hope Miette was alright, and could find them soon.
Within the confines of what she could do, Serena had to use the only thing she had to hand. She didn't particularly want to, but she knew, in an instant, that Ash's safety and health was far, far, far more important than sentiment.
On her person, she still had Ash's ribbon. The one he had given her on the closest thing she could call a date that she had ever been on.
It held so much meaning to her. Her time with Ash, the bond they shared, their friendship...
And now, it was going to help Ash, far more than it could help Serena.
She unfolded the knot in the ribbon, and pulled it from around her neck. Gently dabbing Ash's wounds, she then tied it around the mark on his right arm. It wasn't exactly a bandage, but given her circumstances, that was the best she could do.
Upon her inspection, she realized she might have over-reacted. Ash's injuries, while far more serious than her own, were still only minor. She had her rush of worry to blame for that, but regardless, she couldn't help but be worried sick. "Please be okay..." She prayed, quietly. There wasn't much else she could do.
"Urgh..."
Pain. That was the very first thing Ash felt. Everything hurt, pretty badly, like it had all scrapes and was heavily bruised. It wasn't quite that bad, and it looked worse than it was, easily. He found himself unable to move his arms or legs easily. Not that they were broken, just stiff. Moving them hurt, and he felt his legs were immensely sore in particular. He attempted to bend one to help him stand up, but he immediately fell back down after a sudden shock of pain hit his upper thigh.
"Ash!"
Ash turned his head towards the sound of what sounded like someone saying his name. He was dizzy, so his hearing wasn't at its best, due to his disorientation. Regardless, he attempted to reply. "Se... rena?..."
The next thing his slow to register mind caught up on was the young Kalosians arms wrapped around his next, and her head resting on his shoulder, hugging him and crying her eyes out. She was clinging to him tightly, and sobbing lightly into his shoulder. The act surprised Ash, but he made no effort to remove Serena, instead, opting to hug her back, comforting her, doing what he could to just enjoy the moment for a moment. It wasn't until Serena tightened her grip around Ash's neck that he had to say something. "Serena... Neck... Breathing... Oxygen..."
Serena took a second to understand, and then, realizing what was happening, immediately retracted her arms from his neck. "S-Sorry..."
"Don't worry about it..." Ash said, putting a hand on Serena's hand, and gripping it tightly.
"You've... Been out for a while... I was so worried..."
"I'm fine, Serena. Look at me." Serena looked at him, and his soft gaze, and smiling face brought a smile to hers. "I'm fine."
In spite of how much she enjoyed this exchange, Serena had to explain the situation to Ash. "We're trapped here. I woke up a few hours ago, and I found us in this... Cavern, thing. Its only about two-by-two meters wide, and there's not an exit..."
Observing the crypt, Ash suggested to Serena, "Did you feel a breeze coming from anywhere? Or heat, or something? That could be a sign for our way out."
Reluctantly, Serena had to shake her head. "I checked. There isn't anything. No hollow patches, no breeze, no heat or cold, or... Anything. All there is is this grass, garden stuff we're sat on, and I don't know how it got here, or how we got here, but i think it broke our fall."
"If this is here... There must be something connecting us to the outside, even if it is just a small crack... I know!" Ash reached for his Pokeballs. "...Oh yeah..." He said, realizing what he had done with them. He didn't even have Pikachu with him. Without any of their Pokemon to help them, they were limited in their ability to escape this cavern.
"I already tried that." Serena told Ash. Helping him to lean against a wall, she grabbed the flashlight, and shone it around the crypt they sat in, inspecting the walls once again. There was nothing new. At one point, Serena had tried tearing off chunks of rock to dig a tunnel out, but that hadn't lasted five minutes once she realized that these rocks had barely any loose parts to them.
"We can't have landed here naturally. This was done by someone..." The Kantoean said.
"Beta and Sierra?"
Ash cursed those two names under his breath. He had known they were insane, but this - This was one step he hadn't expected. He had seen them as brutes, utterly efficient and intimidating. Even after learning about Synthcorp, he hadn't imagined this. But he...
"No." Ash sighed. "They didn't expect us to get out of that fall. And if they did, they would have just finished us off. No, they didn't do this." Inspecting the rocks, Ash looked for a pattern, a sign of erosion, cracks, anything that would tell him what he needed to know.
He shone the light around the cavern quickly and noticed something interesting in the rocks. Instead of finding signs of erosion or anything else, he had found out that these rocks were densely packed, intentionally like this. There were certain points in the rocks were it would come inwards, and in the very next part of the rock, it tucked itself back a few centimeters. At the same time, each rock was tucked in neatly, fitting the next absolutely perfectly.
And additionally, they were able to breathe. The space they were allowed to exist in, they should have suffocated hours ago, yet here they were, unscathed.
Flashbacks of working in Oaks Lab hit Ash like a wave. Studies of Rock types in uncharted valleys and mountains when they encountered endangered Pokemon.
"Rock Tomb." Ash said aloud.
"Huh?"
"Good news and bad news." Ash said, turning to face Serena. "The good news is, I don't think we're in any danger. I think a Rock type Pokemon found us while we were out, and made this cavern as a shelter for us. I saw a lot of examples like this when I worked with Oak back home. The bad news," Ash continued, leaning against a wall, and sliding down it, sitting next to Serena. "Is that we'll be stuck in here for quite a while. Until morning, at least."
"That doesn't sound too bad."
"Unless you're claustrophobic."
"Are you?"
"I don't particularly like being in small places. Not enough room for me to stretch my legs. I like the freedom to move around, and being in places like this really restricts me from that." Ash told her.
"That makes sense, coming from you." Serena accepted his reasoning with a nod. "You're always on the move. You can hardly sit still half the time. I'm not surprised you can't stand being stuck in small spaces." She was relieved that Ash was okay. So relieved, and additionally, she was okay. The thought of being trapped in this to,b hadn't exactly been a pleasant one. She rested her head on Ash's shoulder, totally exhausted by all this mess. Doing this normally would have made her go red. Now she just didn't care enough, due to fatigue.
"I guess so." Ash admitted with a small amount of humor to his voice. It was all rather ironic. He hated staying in one place, but he had spent two years stuck in his hometown helping Professor Oak. And now, those two years of knowledge were helping him and Serena stay calm in this rocky hut.
Ash sighed and looked around the very dim room he had to call a tomb, just out of boredom, mostly. He looked all around, just inspecting and looking at the various patterns around the place, until his eyes landed on his eventually landed on his right arm.
"...Serena?"
"Yeah?"
"Why... Your ribbons... On my arm."
Leaning up a bit to see what he meant, Serena's eyes landed on her ribbon. "Oh, right. You had a mark on your arm... So i used that as a bandage, to stop the bleeding."
"But... It's ruined now."
"So?" Serena asked, resting her head on Ash's shoulder again. "I'd rather the ribbon be ruined rather than you be." She spoke with such honesty, such truth, it made Ash blush. She didn't even have a hint of embarrassment in her voice as she said it.
It felt like she was returning the same sentiment that Ash had shown her the day he had given her the ribbon. That night before her first showcase, her first failure. The same Serena whom cut off her hair and made it short, just to show how dedicated she was to moving forward. The sentiment Ash had shown was his absolute and total faith in her. She had returned that sentiment, albeit in a far more practical way.
"...Thanks." Ash said, with a warm smile, although it wasn't likely to be seen in the dark.
Both of them sat in the darkness in a comfortable silence laying over them. The two of them barely even needed to speak to understand the others feelings. They were both warm, but not to the point of discomfort. Still unknowing about what was happening outside, they remain close, but hopeful.
Was Miette okay?
Was Pikachu okay?
What did Sierra and Beta want?
Would they be found?
Were they really safe?
There was a long list of questions that had to be asked. A long list of things they had to figure out once they were out of here. If they got out of here. Weirdly, neither of them was even slightly concerned. Despite the initial reaction, just being next to one another gave the other comfort. Calm confidence that everything would be okay.
"Ash... Can I ask you something?" Serena asked, quietly.
"Sure." Came Ash's reply.
"...Do you still plan to go to Igneous?"
"...Yeah. I do."
"Oh..."
"Why?"
The first time their silence had been uncomfortable came from Serena trying to figure out how to express her feelings. What she wanted to say, but how to say it. It took her a few minutes to figure out.
"...Because I don't want you to go."
"Serena?" Ash's response was of shock, surprise almost.
"Ash... When we first met each other, you inspired me to do my best, always... No matter what it was, or how I tried to achieve it, no matter how often I screwed up, you told me to keep going, to not give up. And I listened. And improved. And I became... The one I am now. The better me…
When I lost in my first showcase... I cried. I cried so much, away from you, from Clemont and from Bonnie, because I couldn't stand you to see me weak like that. You taught me to be strong. To have faith in myself, and I'd failed that. I couldn't... I just couldn't let you see me like that. I... I didn't want pity. I wanted your approval, your praise, not sympathy... So I hid my tears from you, and cut my hair, because I wanted you to see just how serious I was about changing, about becoming stronger." The words just kept coming. There was no stopping them.
"When you left... It hurt... I spent two years, just thinking, 'How is Ash? Is he okay? Where is he? Does he... Even remember who I am?' I just wondered around the entire region. I made three full circuits around all of Kalos before you told me you were coming back..."
Ash stared directly ahead of him. Not looking at Serena.
"And now you're here... And for the first time... In over two years... I feel happy to have you here again... And I... I can't bear the thought of you going again... I..." Serena chocked on her final words for a brief moment, before she found the strength to finish her sentence.
"I love you."
Silence.
"...A-Ash?"
Serena hadn't been the one to say it. Ash had said those words. The three words that she just couldn't force herself to say. She looked at the Kantoean. He was staring straight ahead still, but he was dark red. Every time he glanced at Serena, he flinched and looked back. He clearly forced himself to say the next few words, not out of disingenuous reasons, but out of sheer embarrassment.
"I said, I love you. I don't mean that in a friendly way. I don't mean it like you're a sibling. Serena, I am in love with you." Gritted teeth and a gut of iron was all that had helped him say that. "I... Wanted to be the one to say it. Sorry if I... Kinda stole your thunder."
'The hell with that!' Was all Serena's mind screeched. Either she was dreaming, knocked her head on a rock on the way down, had suffered a serious concussion... Or every single one of her dreams about the boy in front of her were about to become a reality.
"Look..." Ash said, forcing himself to look at Serena, her eyes wide, but not a tint of red on her face. She was in so much shock, her blush hadn't even registered yet. "The entire time I was in Kanto, stuck there, all I could think about was getting out of that lab. But Igneous... Igneous was a getaway... But when the time came... All I could think of was Kalos... Of you." Ash's confession finally helped Serena's face acquire its blush. "Seeing the sights of the Kalos region... Feeling like I needed to train more... Like I had forgotten something here..." Ash chuckled. "All a ton of garbage."
"Ash?..."
"There was only one reason I wanted to come back to Kalos. One reason, and I'd managed to convince myself that it was just one reason in a list of many. The only reason I wanted to return to this region..."
Ash and Serena's eyes locked. Serena's heart raced, and Ash's blood was practically on fire.
"...Was you."
It had been quick. Far quicker than Ash had wanted. He had wanted to take his time with Serena. Only a few weeks after seeing her again, it felt rushed... But then again, they were trapped in a cave, without the guarantee of escape... And he had known he had wanted to be the first of the two of them to confess. In the bizarre scenario that Serena was going to confess to Ash, Ash knew he wanted to say it before she did. It was a weird impulse he had felt when the idea came into his head, over a year ago when in Kanto. He wanted to say it first. He just felt he had to.
Serena meanwhile, had barely even registered it. What happened felt like a dream. It had to be. She couldn't acquire the energy to hug Ash. She just rested on his shoulder, far more comfortably than before, and repeated the words, over and over. "I love you..."
Neither of them had seen it happening this way. Although, neither of them particularly cared too much. It had been said. It was in the air.
They could deal with it later.
"Serena?"
To her immense surprise, Serena found her head resting on Ash's lap. They were still in the cavern, of course, but somehow, it seemed lighter. Less of a trap, and more of a room.
For a second, Serena absolutely dreaded the worst. "Did... Did I..."
Ash reassured her with a smile. "I love you." He rested a hand in her forehead. "You didn't dream it."
Hearing it again really was something Serena was not expecting, and she shot up quickly, onto her feet and a meter from Ash, whom watched in amusement. "O-Oh!"
Ash grinned. "Look." He said, nodding to her immediate right.
The rock was slowly retracting into the ground. It told both of them what they needed to know.
It was a Rock type Pokemon that had put them in this hut. Once they peered outside, they could see what Pokemon it was. To Serena's half shock, half expectancy, it was a Rhyhorn.
"Of course..." Serena said with a sigh.
The process to release them took only a few minutes. They thanked the Rhyhorn many, many times. They then went to find out what the hell had happened to their friends,
"...Can we... Talk about this later?" Serena asked, timidly. She was excited, overjoyed, thrilled - But she needed a few hours to remind herself, this was her reality.
Ash nodded. "Whatever you need."
This certainly evolved into its own thing. I cannot tell you how many drafts of this thing I have stored in my head.
I know I'm a week late, but there are actually a list of reasons for it this time - I promise!
Number one, being that
I have been focusing heavily on my independent work 'Bloodshot' on Wattpad. It's taken up a great portion of my time and writing energy, especially since I make each chapter a minimum of 10,000 words. Id love it, absolutely love it, if you went and checked it out. I cannot tell you how much effort has gone into that story. I must have at least 30 character bios for that story planned, and have gotten huge help from other authors like Metakingiant. Huge shout out to him, by the way.
The second reason being, my final week of college for this year has been coming up, and I've needed everything to get ready.
Thirdly, Youtube... That's become a pretty common excuse lately, hasn't it?
And finally... Well, this is a long one, so stick with me.
Last week i finally caved in to what I call Tumblr Taunting, and finally gave Miraculous Ladybug a chance. About six hours later, I was yelling at my monitor for the two main characters to kiss, so yeah, pretty safe to say I freaking love it. I now find myself in a position in which I want to write a story on it to help cope with the half a year wait until Season 2.
Which brings me to this point.
I feel that it's time to take a small step back from Amourshipping for a few weeks. Give myself the chance to breathe again. I've updated Amourshipping fanfics for you guys once a week for a year and a half, and I think I'm burned out on it - But it will remain my OTP, and you can be damn sure I'm not letting Serena go out with Alola. She will remain on here, if nowhere else. So here's what I'm thinking.
Love, Loss and Loyalty will be finished. I Promise that, but i get the next six weeks off of college due to the end of the year, and i need to refresh myself. So what I'm gonna do is make Love Loss and Loyalty a side project for a short while, while I focus on Bloodshot and Miraculous works. I promise right now, this story will be updated, but after practically breathing Amourshipping for roughly 580 days straight, I need a chance to try something else.
If you haven't watched Miraculous Ladybug, its essentially a superhero version of what we all know we'd make Pokemon X and Y if we could. Its essentially shipping fodder, and its glorious. I need to same energy i had writing fanfictions when i began writing them for you guys, and i feel a fresh story might help me do that. You don't have to read it, but if the series interests you, or if you're just bored of seeing memes on Tumblr and not have a clue what the hell is going in on, like i did, give the series a chance.
For the record, any links for anything you may wanna check on mine will be on my profile.
Anyways, that's it from me. To recap - Busy with lots and lots of writing, go check them out, and be prepared for a few new stories from different franchises on here. I hope you enjoyed, and ill see you in whatever it is, i do indeed, decide to write next. See ya!
