This is most likely going to be a short chapter, but hopefully you enjoy!
Serena sat with Ash on a small bench in a park on Wyndon's east side, watching as Pancham and Pikachu played around on a small field of grass. "You know, I've never really had dinner through a street market, but this was a lot of fun," she giggled, taking a bite out of a plate of curry she had bought from the market earlier. Poking at the enormous egg that sat in the center of her plate, Serena muttered, "I don't understand why the egg's so big, though..." before looking over at Ash, who seemed to be busying himself with some dried Slowpoke Tail.
Cutting herself a piece of egg, Serena was about to take another bite of her curry when she felt Ash tap her shoulder. Turning to her side, Serena was greeted by Ash making a scary face towards her. Somewhat startled, Serena was about to ask him why he did that until she took a closer look at his mouth. "Ash, are those the Slowpoke Tails from earlier?" she giggled, noticing that they were placed over his cuspids in an attempt to emulate vampire fangs.
Ash's face took on a sheepish expression as he nodded, doing his best to make sure his "fangs" stuck onto his teeth as he closed his mouth. After a brief silence, the two of them burst out in laughter as Ash popped both tails into his mouth and began chewing. Once he was done, Ash turned to Serena and asked, "So... how's it been in Hoenn?"
"Really busy. I caught some new Pokémon there that became fixtures of my Contest routines..." Looking towards Ash, she clarified, "I don't have any of them with me at the moment, but I've been meaning to ask my mom to transfer some of them here so that they can come watch."
Nodding, Ash followed up with, "How was it like adjusting to Contests over Showcases?"
"It was really difficult, actually. I think you remember that I... wasn't the best battler, to put it nicely, back when we traveled through Kalos." Twirling her fingers through the blue ribbon on her wrist, Serena continued, "I didn't win a single Contest for my first two months in Hoenn. The Appeal Rounds I always got through with no trouble, but then I would get crushed in the Battle Stage," she finished with a sigh. "May reached out to me after about... my third Contest and invited me to come practice with her. I was not ready at all, the way she battles is a lot like a League Trainer..."
Nervously chuckling, Ash said, "That... might've been my fault, actually." As Serena looked towards him, Ash explained, "I taught May how to battle when traveling through Hoenn and Kanto. That probably explains why most of her battles ended in knockout fashion, in hindsight..."
"May never told me that you trained her, that's really cool. Did you do the same thing for Dawn?"
"Kind of, but not really. What we did when we traveled through Sinnoh was that we ended up exchanging tactics with each other and adjusting them to fit either battles or Contests. There was this one time, during a battle against Palmer, the head of Sinnoh's Battle Tower, my Torterra—he was a Grotle at the time—accidentally swallowed his own Energy Ball and got a massive power boost that almost let him defeat Palmer's Rhyperior. Later, Dawn tried out this Ice Armor technique with her Mamoswine which involved him eating his own Ice Shard to create ice all over himself. Also, remember that Counter Shield thing I showed at the Lumiose Conference?" Serena nodded, and Ash continued, "That was refined from one of Dawn's Contest performances with her Ambipom."
"The two of you must've been really close."
Ash nodded. "Dawn's my best friend, and May isn't far behind either. Mentoring the two of them really helped me grow as a Trainer." Looking towards Serena with an apologetic expression, Ash continued, "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help you in the same way."
"Don't be, Ash. Even if you didn't directly mentor me, you did still help me when we went through Kalos together. I became more sure of myself and grew into my own person, and I've got you to thank for that," Serena finished, flashing a smile towards her crush.
The warmness of Serena's expression only made the icy feeling in Ash's gut worsen, and his eyes flitted around frantically, looking for some kind of way to change the subject.
"Ash?"
"Sorry, sorry."
Chuckling, Serena asked, "Is it nerves for the final bracket?"
"Yeah." Even eight years later, Ash still didn't feel comfortable about lying.
Serena lightly shoved his shoulder, responding, "Let's not talk about the Masters Eight, in that case! How was your time in Alola? You must've been really busy there, what with you becoming Alola's first Champion and all that. Congratulations, by the way."
"You watched the Manalo Conference?"
"May pulled me aside during the off season of the Contest circuit that year—she thought I was becoming a workaholic, somehow—and we watched the highlights of the Manalo Conference together. Max wasn't with us because he was off at Izabe Island."
Ash laughed. "Truth be told, I wasn't really that busy in Alola. I just wanted a break from everything and to get some time to myself to clear my head, especially after the Kalos Crisis." As Serena nodded in understanding, Ash continued, "I mean, I still did Alola's trials and everything, but it was more at my own pace instead of scrambling to get everything in a few months' time, the Manalo Conference didn't really come into existence until about a month before I left for Kanto. Plus, Alola gave me plenty of time to think about... well, the airport."
That gave Serena pause. Is that why Ash's been acting so funny around me lately? Apprehensively, the Pokémon Performer asked, "What about it?"
Ash pulled on his gloves, responding, "I know I have a bit of a reputation of being 'dense,' as Bonnie put it back then, but even I knew that you had a crush on me." Having a feeling as to what Serena would ask, Ash continued, "I never said anything about it because... I was scared. I was mostly scared that addressing it in any way would make things awkward between the four of us, but most importantly, I was scared because it was the first time I'd ever felt that way about a girl since... Misty, and that was before I went through puberty." The brief moment of humor was broken with, "And then there was the Kalos Crisis," Ash's voice momentarily wavering upon bringing it up again. Placing both of his hands on Serena's shoulders, he whispered, "The fact that you almost died then still... I... sometimes I can't sleep without having nightmares about Alain's Charizard not catching us, or me not being able to catch you, or-"
Serena pulled Ash into a hug, and the dam broke.
As Ash sobbed into her shoulder, Serena gave him some pats on the back as she whispered back, "I'm sorry you had to go through all that," trying her best to not cry herself. The comment Ash had made about Misty had caught Serena's attention, but she pushed it to the back of her mind given the more pressing matter at hand. Serena gave Ash one last shoulder squeeze as she broke the hug and asked, "Did you ever tell anyone else about this?"
Sniffling, Ash wiped his eyes and answered, "I told Professors Kukui and Burnet in Alola, because they were my caretakers over there. Telling them did help a little bit, but the nightmares didn't stop. But... back to the airport," he said, hoping to change the uncomfortable subject to one that was merely awkward instead. "When you kissed me, I didn't know how to react at all. I've only ever been kissed twice in my life before that—I'm pretty sure that one of those times was a Pokémon disguised as a human—and never on the lips like you did."
Ash leaned forward onto his hands as he continued, "I spent pretty much the entirety of Alola juggling school, the island trials, and... how I felt about you as well." Glancing at Serena, he finally said, "It took me a lot of time and a bit of prodding from Kukui and Burnet, but eventually I came to the same conclusion. Serena... I like you too."
Serena's cheeks were dusted with a light shade of pink as she said, "This wasn't how I imagined it ever going, but all the same..." trailing off as she took Ash's hands in hers. As she leaned in, however, she was interrupted by the buzzing of Ash's Rotom Phone.
Masters Eight schedule has been updated! Your next match is tomorrow versus Indigo Grand Champion Lance Imugi at 10 o'clock!
Ash nervously smiled in Serena's direction, but she simply giggled and said, "That should probably take priority. I know you probably want to practice with the team you're using tomorrow! We'll all be rooting for you!" Serena planted a kiss on his cheek, winking as she whispered, "For luck," before hopping off the bench and scooping Pancham into her arms, saying, "Bye Pikachu, good luck tomorrow!" as she ran off to find Dawn and the Maple siblings.
Ash watched as Serena faded into the distance, lightly touching the spot where she had kissed him. Looking towards Pikachu, who was giving him an encouraging thumbs-up and a wink, Ash's determination came back as he pumped a fist, saying, "Serena's right, Pikachu, we should start preparing for tomorrow, come on!"
Back in his hotel room, Ash looked over his list of six for his match against Lance, and looked at Pikachu. "How's this look, buddy?"
Pikachu took the list and looked it over for a second before pointing out the blank sixth slot. "Pika?"
"Don't worry about that, buddy, I absolutely do have my sixth Pokémon in mind."
Pikachu took a look at the list again and asked, "Pi pikachu?"
"See, I want to use Tauros... but I don't know which Tauros to use." Booting up the PC in the room, Ash logged on with his credentials and looked through his roster of Pokémon, scrolling down to find each of his thirty Tauros. Muttering to himself, Ash began, "Okay... all of them have a constant four moves between them all: Body Slam, Earthquake, Blizzard, and Hyper Beam. The remaining six moves are kinda scattered for each Tauros, and Abilities are evenly split between the herd." After waiting fifteen minutes for the move lists for each of his Tauros to load, Ash began looking through each of them, before finally clicking on one of the thirty Tauros and saying, "Alright, this one!" before writing down 'Tauros' on his list and going to his closet. Once he picked out the six Poké Balls, Ash ran out of his room after logging out of the PC to find a training field.
Dawn roamed the general area outside Wyndon Stadium, having told May and Max that she wanted to go walk for a little while. Standing by a tree, she watched as Serena walked past, the Pokémon Performer having a spring in her step as she carried her Pancham in her arms.
Smiling, Dawn thought to herself, Guess Ash must've told her. Looking down at Piplup, she asked, "Do you want to go find Ash and Pikachu?" Piplup nodded, and Dawn pulled out her Rotom Phone, texting to Ash, Hey, which training field are you at?
Gotta Ketchum All: I'm at the one just outside the snack bar.
Rolling her eyes in amusement, Dawn muttered, "Of course he is," beginning the walk there. On her way there, she spotted a Trainer with green hair walking with their Luxray, and she whispered, "Is that actually her...?" Taking a shot in the wind, she called out, "Hey Angie, is that you?" The green-haired Trainer turned towards Dawn, revealing that they were indeed her friend from Professor Rowan's Pokémon Summer Academy.
Dawn sprinted over and tackled Angie in a hug, exclaiming, "How come you never told me you were here?!"
"Heh, good to see you too, Dawn..." Angie wheezed as she got back up to her feet with Dawn's help. "As for your question: I only won a ticket for the Masters Eight through a raffle, so I didn't even know that I was going until like, a week ago." Dusting her top off, Angie continued, "Also, did you know that Team Rocket's here watching the Masters Eight too? I'm sat with them in Section Z."
"Are they selling any food like they did in Sinnoh?"
"No, actually. They told me that they came to root for Ash."
Laughing, Dawn replied, "I'm actually inclined to believe that, if I'm being honest with you. Speaking of Ash, I'm actually on my way to go visit him right now, do you wanna come with?"
"Sure!"
Ash watched as Tauros and Scrafty butted heads with one another before resetting to a neutral position. Tauros dug his hooves into the ground and bellowed in Scrafty's direction, irritating the Hoodlum Pokémon and causing him to use Crunch in retaliation.
Tauros simply took a step back and watched Scrafty completely miss, face-faulting on the ground. As Scrafty pulled himself up, Tauros gently nudged him with his front hoof and said, "Not bad, but you need to stop overextending. If you end up missing a more risky move like High Jump Kick tomorrow, that'll be really bad for us." Scrafty gave a begrudging nod, and Tauros continued, "Now, let's practice your movement with Dragon Dance! See if you can keep up with me!"
As Ash turned to his next pair of Pokémon, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Hey Ash, over here!"
Turning around, Ash saw Dawn and Angie running towards him, and he enthusiastically said, "Hey Dawn, Angie!" Once the two girls had caught up to him, Ash gave Dawn their signature high five and Angie a fistbump, exclaiming, "It's great to see you again, Angie! How was it sitting with Team Rocket?"
"Surprisingly not terrible, if I'm being honest. They're not bad people outside of trying to steal Pikachu."
Chuckling, Ash replied, "Yeah, I sorta figured that out on my own sometime during either the Battle Frontier or Sinnoh."
Angie watched as Ash's six Pokémon all continued practicing with each other after stopping for a moment to greet her and Dawn, and she leaned on a wooden post, asking, "You ready for Lance tomorrow?"
Ash grinned. "I've got an idea on what to do."
Giving herself another look at Ash's team of six, Angie remarked, "Those are all pretty good Pokémon to use against a Dragon-type Trainer, you've come a long way from that big dummy I met at the summer academy," playfully punching Ash's shoulder.
While Ash's Pokémon continued practicing, and Pikachu, Piplup, and Luxray began catching up with each other, Ash, Angie, and Dawn continued talking well into the night.
Well, I can't say I didn't try my hardest, at least. I always knew this particular chapter would be on the shorter end, but there was still a decent amount of stuff I wanted to fit in.
Any RBY OU player will recognize those four constant moves on Tauros.
Reviews are always appreciated, thank you for reading and stay tuned.
-Krosshair
