Amourshipping

Sometimes Serena wondered why she bothered.

She was sitting at her desk in first period of the last day of school, watching Ash and Misty argue. Despite their arguing, they seemed...really close.

Of course, it wasn't just Misty. May, Dawn, and Iris...they all seemed really close to Ash. She knew she was overreacting. Ash's personality allowed him to make friends easily. He had like a million male friends too. Somehow he had even managed to befriend Paul, who is not exactly known for his friendliness.

And then there was her.

He cared for her. There was no doubt about that. Even before he remembered her from their childhood (which took a while).

They were friends, she even felt that she was one of his best friends, which, considering how many friends he had, she found pretty amazing.

But was there anything beyond that, besides her one-sided love?

Watching Ash and Misty argue while May and Dawn took Misty's side, she really had to wonder.

"Ashy-boy, you might wanna take off that hat. Mr. Rokudo is gonna come in any second." Gary Oak said as he came in, giving his friend a casual wave before joining a large group of girls. Dawn suddenly took an interest in someone who wasn't Ash and her other friends. She watched Gary, but didn't move from her spot with Ash's group. Serena felt sorry for her, and felt bad for being jealous over her friendship with Ash. Dawn liked Gary Oak, she said so herself. But from what Serena had seen, liking someone like Gary was...pretty hopeless.

Just like loving someone like Ash seemed completely pointless. Looking at him and his argument again, she wasn't sure he had thought of any girl like that, even Misty. Yet she had liked him (maybe even loved him?) ever since he led her out of the forest when she was a child. It wasn't really a surprise when he had trouble remembering her after she had been living in Kalos for all those years. It still hurt a bit though.

Ash didn't love her, at least not like that. He liked everyone. She wasn't anything special.

"Serena?"

Serena's head shot up to find Ash staring down at her, his coffee brown eyes concerned. His black, spiky hair was a mess as usual, and the Z's on his face were as evident as ever, and yet she found him adorable. Or handsome. Whichever.

"Serena, are you alright? You've been zoned out for a while." Ash asked.

The girl managed a smile and nodded. Behind him stood Misty and May, who were both looking at her in the same concern. Misty watched the two for a second before asking Ash and May to go talk to Gary and Dawn for a few minutes. Only then did Serena notice that Gary had left his group of girls to talk to Dawn. Maybe there was hope for those two...? Nah.

Misty dropped down into the seat next to hers carelessly before looking over at her.

"So, any reason why you've been zoned out watching us since school started?"

"Not really. Just thinking."

"About Ash."

"Everyone. I'm going to miss everyone."

Misty didn't reply for a minute. When she did her voice was quieter.

"He didn't notice when I zoned out like that. I don't think he took that much notice in anyone unless their troubles were insanely obvious." And with that, she got up and rejoined the group, leaving a dumbfounded Serena in her seat alone.

Even before reuniting with Ash, Serena had never taken the last day of school too well. Not being able to see her friends as much (mainly because of her constantly vacations every year) was really hard on her. When she reunited with Ash and met the people who had become her new best friends, it got worse. As the last bell rang and all her friends hugged her goodbye, she had to fight to not break down crying. This was only made worse when Dawn, who she always walked home with, left her saying to go on without her. She looked like she had seen something that had gotten her attention. And so Serena left the school building alone.

Not surprisingly, she tripped on something (a pencil?) as soon as she exited the building. And of course, she dropped her stuff. She grumbled about "stupid pencils" while trying to pick up the notebooks she dropped. She didn't get far when another hand reached down to pick them up. She looked up in suprise to find Ash standing over her, once again looking down at her in concern.

"Are you okay?"

Without even waiting for a response, he held out the hand that wasn't holding her books and patiently waited for her to take it. Serena felt this flash of a memory. She saw Ash as a child wrapping a handkerchief around her knee, holding his hand out for her with some stupid grin on his face, and leading her through the woods that she had gotten lost in.

"Serena?"

Serena managed a smile- a real one- and took Ash's hand, letting him help her up. Just like back then. Despite the fact that she was smiling again, Ash still looked concerned.

"You've been zoning out a lot today. I'll walk you home. It's on the way anyway." He scratched at his face nervously, something Serena had always loved seeing. It was adorable.

As he held on to her hand and led her away from the school and in the direction of her house, one thought came through her mind.

This is why I bother.

Just then a car drove past them and Serena caught a glimpse of a girl with long dark (blue?) hair with a small white hat in the passenger seat with a spiky haired boy in the driver seat.

I'm sure you can all guess who that is. Sorry, I haven't quite caught up with the anime up until now, so this was short of winging it. Actually all of this was winging it. And yeah, this one was easier than the last one for me because I was more inspired. I'm not sure it's any good, but oh well. It was enjoyable. Happy summer break everyone!

My next fanfic won't be Pokemon, I hope. I want to do Rinne fanfics so bad.