Another day, another chapter! This one's kinda lengthy, but I hope you enjoy it! Something tells me you will :-)

Serena's POV

"Alright lovebirds, new plans for today!" Dawn called out, Aimar following suit. I blushed a bit, getting up from my spot on the steps. Ash did the same and asked, "New plans?"

He didn't even deny being referred to as 'lovebirds'. I shot a quick glance at him, looking for any blush or facial expressions that hinted toward embarrassment.

"That's right," Aimar answered, putting his hoodie back on. "Ash, we're going back to our room."

"Why? I thought we had nothing better to do?" He asked, slightly furrowing his brows.

"We do now," Aimar said, forcing Ash down the stairs and towards the direction of their dorms. Pikachu scurried along, his little hops keeping him at the right pace.

"We do too. Come on Serena!" Dawn exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling me up the stairs into our room. She shut the door behind us and turned around, walking over to the cabinets and looking through her clothes.

"Dawn, what are you doing?" I asked her, clueless towards her actions. She pulled out a blue two piece bikini she ordered online a few weeks ago and tossed it towards her bed. "We're going swimming." She smiled. "The weather's great outside, the two lakes should be at the best temperature right now!" She gave me a little smirk. "Plus it'll give you a chance to rock that new bikini you got at the start of summer!"

I felt sudden anxiety in my stomach. "Wait, Ash and Aimar going too?"

"Yup, I invited them."

My stomach squirmed and my cheeks warmed up. "Dawn! You know how timid I am." I nervously spoke, my hands instinctively hugging myself.

"You seemed fine while you were cuddling with Ash, I don't think there'll be a problem!" She smiled. My face heated up. "We weren't cuddling! We were sitting next to eachother, that's all." I replied, slightly distraught. She went to the bathroom and came out with two towels, tossing one in my direction. "Well, start changing; its four o'clock and I told him we'd be there at 5."

Ash's POV

"So, what is it that we're doing?" I asked Aimar as we neared our dorms. Aimar kept waking forward but turned his head to face me. "We're go-" Aimar's chin collided with someone else's, a girl with blue hair. She groaned, rubbing her forehead.

"Ouch, that really hurt!" She whined. She had short, blue hair with a headband of some sort holding her hair together. She had on a blouse with a weird shade of blue green and mint green, an orange tie around her collar. Along with that, she wore a blue skirt with white stockings and orange shoes.

"My bad." Aimar sweat dropped, nervously scratching the back of his head. She looked up and started to yell at him until she took a glance at me. She slid right past Aimar and got a little too close, making the situation slightly awkward.

"Hey! I'm Miette, it's nice to meet you!" She hung to my arm.

"Uhh, hey Miette. I'm Ash." I smiled, feeling a little bit uneasy."

"And I'm Aimar. Now that the hellos are done, we should probably get started on the goodbyes." Aimar said, taking my arm and dragging me along.

"Ash wait! Here's my number!" She yelled, taking out a small piece of paper and handing it to me. I put it in my pocket and awkwardly waved as Aimar sped up.

"What are you guys doing later?" She yelled, her voice barely audible.

"Yeah, what exactly are we doing then?" I asked Aimar, who ignored me and dragged me up the stairs into the dorm. He closed the door and went through his backpack, pulling out a pair of shorts and a towel. "Dawn told me there was a nearby lake in the woods, so we decided we'd go swimming to cool ourselves off."

"Sounds fun!" I grinned, going through my halfway unpacked luggage. I knew I didn't pack swimming trunks but I had to have a pair of basketball shorts in there somewhere. I found them, a simple navy blue pair that could pass as a pair of gym shorts. I looked over at Aimar and caught him with his shorts on too, standing in front of the bathroom mirror while flexing his biceps. He wasn't buff, that was for sure; but he was defined enough to where you can see that he has had trips to the gym occasionally.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked.

"Awakening the beast," he boasted, dropping down to a push up position and starting the familiar motion. "His slumber is over."

I sweat dropped, feeling slight jealousy over him. "You're weaker than string cheese."

"You're right," Aimar answered, standing up and flexing his arms. "Made of nothing but 'arm'-esan."

I mentally facepalmed. "You mean Parmesan?"

"No, Ash. Armesan."

"So, where's the lake at, exactly ?" I asked, trailing behind Aimar as we walked down a path in the forest. "

"Straight ahead." He pointed. Sure enough, a lake soon came into view. "Alright!" I shouted, running towards the lake. Once I reached it, I stopped and started to examine my surroundings. There were nothing but trees surrounding us. The lake was rather large, a waterfall leaking into it. The water was almost transparent, the ground clearly visible. I removed my sandals and dipped my toe into the water.

"Aimar! Get over here, it feels great!" I turned around to find Aimar gone.

Serena's POV

"Walk faster, Serena!" Dawn yelled at me. She was about fifteen feet ahead me, not the farthest distance but enough to have to shout.

"I'm going, I'm going!" I shouted back. No way in hell am I actually speeding up though, I was extremely nervous. Instead, I took my sweet time to catch up. I looked up at her, and saw her give a sly smile, running off towards the lake. "Dawn! Wait up!" I shouted, breaking into a sprint. She was far faster than me, and quickly left me behind. I ran until I couldn't move anymore, and bent down to my knees to catch my breath.

"Serena?"

I glanced up, and saw Ash standing in front of me, wearing sandals and a pair of shorts. My eyes instinctively moved towards his upper body. He wasn't ripped, but he had enough muscle to wear you can see the roundness of his chest, and a slight outline of a 6 pack on his stomach. I immediately started blushing, realizing what it was I was doing.

"H-hey Ash." I replied, the butterflies in my stomach going insane. "Where's Aimar?"

"Idk, we got to the lake and as soon as I turned around, he was gone." He answered. "What about Dawn?"

"Weird, she did the same thing and-" It clicked. "Damn it Dawn, just wait till we get back.." I muttered under my breath.

"What is it?" He asked

"Nothing, it's fine!" I lied, adding a nervous laugh.

"Alright, well they're the ones missing out. I found this pretty cool rock over by the lake, come see!" He happily stated, grabbing my hand and pulling me over to the lake. I giggled at his childlike actions, it was really adorable. He stopped once we reached the lake, and pointed into the lake. "It's right there!" He exclaimed, bouncing up and down. I looked forward and saw nothing special; just regular pebbles and rocks.

I turned to him. "I don't see anything special."

"Look a little bit closer! Trust me it's there!" I bent down and got on my knees, edging towards the water. That's when I felt a shove, and plummeted face first into the water. I struggled the first few moments, comprehending what had just happened and afterwords swimming back to the surface. I found Ash laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach.

"That was priceless! You should've seen yourself!" Ash laughed.

"Ash! Now my clothes are soaked!" I pouted. He was too busy laughing, so I decided that I needed payback. I grabbed his ankle and pulled as hard as I could, pulling him into the river with me. His face went from 'Oh man I'm having a good time' to 'Well fuck' as he too went crashing into the water. I lifted myself off and sat at the edge, removing my shirt and shorts to reveal my bikini. He came up for air and shook his head, water spraying everywhere. I giggled as I put my hands in the way, attempting to shield myself from the shower. He smiled and looked at me, his expression going blank. He looked as if he was in awe.

"Ash, what's wrong?" I asked, looking at my surroundings. It took me a bit too realize that he was referring to me. I blushed a deep pink, the familiar nervous feeling making a return. If my emotions were a tv show, Nervousness would be that character with the recurring role that no one likes.

"Uhh, n-nothing," he replied, his cheeks going red. "It's just- you look really pretty."

I was speechless. Ash Ketchum called me pretty. REALLY pretty. My face was so hot, I swear I saw water evaporate in front my eyes. I covered my face so that he couldn't see my me. Suddenly, water struck me, causing me to open my eyes.

"Come on, let's have fun!" Ash laughed, splashing me with more water. I giggled and splashed some water back, getting him in the face.

"Hey!" He shouted, laughing it off.

"If you can't take heat, stay out the kitchen!" I exclaimed, stopping to rest my arms.

"That's it's, now you've done it! Rapid fire!" He declared, coming in close and began furiously scooping his hands into the water, hitting me back to back. I giggled and tried to shield but failed to. He soon got close enough and wrapped his arms around me, picking me up with ease and twirling me around.

"Woah, Ash!" I said, blushing at his actions. "Slow down! I'm getting dizzy!"

"Yeah Ash, you don't want to drop her." Ash stopped as we both looked over in the direction the voice came from. Aimar and Dawn both walked towards the lake, drying themselves off with their towels.

"Where have you guys been?" Ash shouted, putting me down and swimming in closer. I was kinda bummed that Aimar and Dawn had to ruin the moment, but I rubbed it off none the less. I followed Ash, swimming over to them and lifting myself up and out of the lake.

"We went to a different lake, we never knew this one existed." Dawn sweat dropped. I eyes her suspiciously- remind me to talk to her later.

"Yeah, luckily we found you guys. Now let's get going, the sun is setting." Aimar noted, turning around and making his way back down the path. I looked back, and to my surprise, he was right. The sun was already a fourth of the way done from completely disappearing into the night sky. I picked up my somewhat dry clothes and slipped them on, making my way back to my dorm.

Ash's POV

"So, what happened down there?" Aimar asked, fresh out the shower. I sat up and glanced at Aimar. To my dismay, saw him butt naked. From the front.

"Aww come on man," I groaned, closing my eyes and looking away. "We're not that close; we literally just met today."

"Really? I feel like I've known you for years." He replied, sliding on his compression shorts and a pair of jogger sweatpants. He held onto the top bunk and pulled himself up, laying on his bed. "You guys seemed to be having a lot of fun."

I thought back to the time Serena and I spent together at the lake. "It was really, really fun."

"How so?"

"Well," I said aloud, laying on my back, "I can't really explain it. It's just, her personality is really nice. She can make me laugh whenever she wants, and things like her smile, her laugh, all these things I never payed attention to before; they give me this weird feeling I've never felt before, like some kind of warmth coursing through me," I responded, moving over to make space for Pikachu, "and I like it."

"Ash, my man," Aimar started, poking his head out from the top bunk. "I think you may be having your very first crush."