"And feel free to bring your friends. I'm not taking that as an excuse this time."

"Yes, mom," Ash responded. "I'll be home for Mercy Day, bye now."

She smiled in victory as he cut off the connection.

"Pika…" Pikachu sighed, echoing his own sentiment.

Ash understood why his mom was annoyed. She'd asked him to come home for Mercy Day every year, and he hadn't shown up even once. In his defense though, he wasn't exactly five minutes away from an airport. He'd tried to explain that to her, but she'd told him to figure it out.

He rejoined the group.

"What was that all about?" Bonnie nosed in. "Sounds like your mommy is mad at you."

"Bonnie!" Clemont grabbed her back with his Aipom Arm. "Won't you ever learn to mind your own business? If Ash wants to tell us he'll tell us. Don't be rude."

Ash laughed. "It's fine. My mom's just insisting I fly back to Kanto for Mercy Day. I was trying to explain to her that I can't even get to Lumiose Airport on time."

"What do you mean?" Clemont asked.

"Well, I mean, that's what, three days from now? Lumiose is at a week's walk, and that's at 30 kilometers a day, which I doubt we could do for more than two days before we all collapsed from exhaustion."

"There are ways other than hiking to get around Kalos, you know, Ash," Serena chimed in.

"Yeah, we can just take the TMV. It'll take like half an hour," Clemont added.

"Wait, really?" Ash asked.

"You didn't know that?" Clemont asked. "I thought you just hiked everywhere because you enjoyed it."

"I mean, yeah, that's why I don't take busses, but how can a train take you 220km in half an hour?"

Clemont took on the classic look of a Kalosian proud of his country. "That's why it's called the TMV. Train à la Meilleure Vitesse. It's even faster than the old TGV. It goes more than half the speed of sound."

"Wow, science is so amazing!" Ash responded, getting a groan from Bonnie. Though he took on an annoyed look as he realized the implications, and let out a groan of his own. "So I really don't have an excuse, do I?"

"Don't you wanna see your mom?" Bonnie asked.

"I do, but that means we have to pause our journey together…" Ash replied.

"I mean, your mom invited us, right? I'd love to come visit Pallet Town with you, Ash," Serena jumped in. Bonnie grinned at her, and she blushed the way she always seemed to when Bonnie did that. Ash still wondered what that was all about.

"I mean if you really don't mind…" Ash replied.

"Oh I'm sure she doesn't mind," Bonnie added with a smirk. "And neither do Clemont and me."

"Shouldn't you guys all be with your families for Mercy Day though?" Ash asked.

"It's really a Sinjoh holiday, Ash. Closest thing here in Kalos is Pledging Day, and we just celebrated that," Clemont replied. "Unlike you Arceus worshippers we don't really need to celebrate Xerneas's mercy, he doesn't really do the whole judgement thing."

"Alright, I guess it's a plan then," Ash replied with a bit more excitement.

"Pika!" Pikachu added happily.

"Pallet Town's smaller than I remember it," Serena commented as they walked along the road, having just gotten off the ferry from Vermillion City.

"I guess ten years will do that," Ash mused. "You've grown, and the place has stayed the same. Every time I come back it feels just a bit smaller."

"Wow Ash, you almost sound like a grown up," Bonnie giggled.

"More grown up than you, that's for sure," Ash grabbed her and tickled her, prompting a tirade of protesting laughter.

"I didn't know small family-owned farms existed anywhere anymore," Clemont commented as they passed by some lightly snow covered fields. Serena could vaguely remember them being filled with vibrant colors in the summer, but the snow gave them a muted empty look, though with a sparkly beauty of it's own. The occasional break in a property line was accompanied by a fence and usually a farmhouse by the road.

"Well, Pallet Town's kinda an exception," Ash replied, releasing Bonnie, who pouted, blowing him a razz berry. "It's all mostly megafarms in Kanto too, but we're famous for our berries. Doesn't quite taste the same when it's grown in bulk. Also, I think you like, can't call it a Pallet Berry if it's harvested by machine or something? You'd have to ask the farmers."

"Huh, so it's like the wineries in Kalos," Clemont replied. "Different parts of Kalos are famous for different wines, and there's legal protection for the branding."

"Hm, something like that I guess, yeah," Ash replied. "Well, we're here." He stopped in front of a fairly sizable farmhouse. In contrast to the rest, it was surrounded by a fenced off yard far smaller than the fields most of the rest of the houses sat on, though still one which would be seen as luxurious in the dense settlements of Kalos.

"Wow! I didn't realize you were loaded Ash," Bonnie exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"Your house is massive," Clemont replied, his own jaw having dropped.

Serena looked at them, confused by the comments. "I mean, it's not much bigger than my house," she commented. "I guess the yard is pretty big, but it's nothing crazy."

"Your mom is a famous rhyhorn racer," Clemont pointed out.

Serena didn't think she was particularly wealthy, but decided not to comment on it. Her house was pretty typical of Vaniville, and Ash's seemed typical of Pallet Town. From what little her mom informed her of their finances, the apartment in Lumiose was by far the pricier home. Okay, maybe she was pretty well off. She wanted to roll her eyes at the voice in her own head.

"We're not rich," Ash replied. "Dad left us the house when he died."

"Oh," Clemont said.

"I'm sorry Ash, I didn't know that," Serena said, putting her hand on his shoulder. Her own dad had left when she was 10, and she imagined it wouldn't have felt much better if he'd died.

"It's fine, I don't really remember him. He died while I was just a baby. I think it's why my mom dotes on me so much," he said. He walked up to the door and keyed in the combination, opening it. "Mom, I'm home," he yelled.

"Mime!" A humanoid pokémon Serena had never seen before dropped a broom it was holding on the ground, and rushed over to pick up Ash in a hug. "Mime mime!"

"It's good to see you too, Mimey," Ash laughed.

"Ash," his mom exclaimed, running down the stairs and nearly tripping. "I didn't think you'd actually come." She grabbed him in a hug and kissed him.

"Mom!" Ash protested. "You're embarrassing me."

She laughed, letting him go. "Well serves you right for all the Mercy Days Mimey and I have spent alone here. Besides, that's what mothers do best after all." She turned to Serena, Bonnie, and Clemont. "You must be Ash's friends. I've heard all about you." Serena felt a bit of warmth creep up her cheeks as Ash's mom's gaze lingered on her for a moment.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Ketchum," Clemont said. "I'm Clemont, and this is my sister Bonnie."

"Oh call me Delia, Mrs. Ketchum makes me feel old," she turned back to Serena. "Serena, it's so good to see you again, it feels like only yesterday that you and Ash were in summer camp together. My you've grown, you were as small as Bonnie."

"They went to summer camp together?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh yes, they were inseparable. They insisted they'd journey together as soon as they were old enough to be trainers. Time really does fly."

"Really?" Bonnie grinned, glancing at Serena. "I'd never be able to tell the way they argue nowadays, they can hardly stand each other. Tell me more!"

"Mom, stop it," Ash complained and Serena silently thanked him.

"Oh alright, I'll hold off on the embarrassing stories for now. How would you kids like some hot chocolate?"

Luckily, that was enough to distract Bonnie, whose eyes widened. "Me first please!"

~ ⁂ ~

"Your cooking is amazing, Mrs. Ketchum," Clemont said, while Bonnie struggled to figure out how to use chop sticks.

"Thank you, dear, though please stop calling me that," Delia replied. She glanced at Bonnie, before going to the kitchen, and Serena heard the sound of her digging through a drawer. She quickly came back with a pair of chopsticks connected by a rubber pokéball at the top.

"Here dear, I still have these from when Ash was little," she handed them to Bonnie.

"Oh wow, these are much easier to use!" Bonnie said through a mouthful of food. "This is really tasty!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Clemont admonished her.

Delia laughed. "You should still try and hold them properly, like this." She showed the chopsticks in her hand to Bonnie. "With a bit of practice you'll easily be able to use the regular kind."

Bonnie nodded, imitating her grip.

Serena picked up a piece of her oyakodon somewhat clumsily, hoping the attention on Bonnie would distract from her own lackluster chopstick skills. She'd used them a couple times when she'd been to Sinjohan restaurants in Lumiose, which she figured is where Clemont had picked up his own impeccable skill with them, but she didn't have too much experience with the utensils.

Ash on the other hand was vacuuming the food into his gullet with no issue, as one would expect from a native Kantonian with an obsession with food. She giggled as he set down his empty bowl before anyone else had gotten even halfway, drawing a glance from Delia that made her suddenly self-conscious.

"So, Serena, how'd you finally end up traveling with Ash after all these years?" the woman asked her.

"Well, it started when I saw him jump off the Lumiose Tower on the news," Serena replied, sending Ash into a coughing fit.

"You did what?" Delia sharply turned to him, and Serena realized that maybe she should've kept that tidbit to herself.

Ash protested, "I was trying to save Pikachu."

"Like father like son," Delia muttered dryly. "Are you planning on leaving me alone like he did? Your poor mother, alone in her old age, with no one but Mimey to keep me company?" Serena couldn't help but agree with Delia. As much as she wanted to take Ash's side, he had a tendency to put himself in harms way far more often than was healthy.

"It turned out fine, like it always does."

"Always? How many times have you jumped off a building?" Delia asked.

"Just the once. I meant like with Lugia."

Serena did her best to avoid spitting out her food. Clemont was less composed.

"What? You were involved in the Lugia incident?"

Ash's mother sighed. "Ash has a tendency for stupid heroics involving world-ending catastrophes. One he inherited from his father no doubt, and one I've tried to scold him out of to no avail. I'm constantly terrified he'll end up like his father, but there's not much I can do when he gets swept up in ancient prophecies which mention him directly by name. It really is like something out of a story. I can't exactly lock him up in a room. That doesn't mean I'm happy to hear about you jumping off a building, Ash."

Serena didn't really know much about Ash's travels before she met up with him. He didn't talk much about them, and she was starting to understand why. Ash was shockingly humble considering his stature in league conferences, and apparently in other things as well.

"Mrs. Ketchum, if you'll forgive my curiosity, who was Ash's father?" Clemont's curiosity evidently overpowered his awkwardness. "I hope you don't mind me asking. I imagine it's a sore point, but you seem comfortable talking about it."

"Not at all, if you'll stop calling me Mrs. Ketchum," Delia replied. "Ash's dad was a Pokémon Ranger who trained in Almia. Among other things he thwarted a plot by the president of Altru Inc. to take control of all pokémon in the region over there. He was transferred back to Kanto to participate in an operation against Team Rocket. He was here just long enough for us to get married and have Ash, before he died thwarting a Team Rocket plan involving Mew." She sighed. "He was a good man. Too good for his own good. I'd hoped that hadn't rubbed off on Ash, but considering the stuff he gets up to every time he goes off traveling, I worry one of these days I'll get a league courier bearing a message as with his father."

She scanned over their frozen faces. "Oh, lighten up. Mercy Day is supposed to be a happy holiday. I loved my husband, but he died making the world a better place. I'm trusting you three to make sure Ash doesn't do the same in Kalos. Now eat up, you're all growing kids."

Serena wasn't sure any of them could keep Ash from doing whatever he wanted, but she decided not to voice that comment.

"In any case, Serena, why don't you finish your story?" Delia asked.

"Well," she looked down felt a bit of warmth at the tips of her ears at recalling the details. "Back when we were kids, Ash bandaged my knee with a handkerchief. When I saw him on the news, and Blaziken Mask saved him, I decided to find him and return the handkerchief. After doing just that, he asked me to join him, and the rest is history."

She glanced up at Bonnie and saw a devious smirk on the little blonde devil's face. Luckily, before the girl could say anything, Delia responded.

"Well, I'm glad you found each other. Grace and I had always hoped to keep you two in touch, but you know how expensive plane tickets are."

Serena didn't, but she gathered from the phrasing that they were quite pricey. Which brought her mind to Clemont and Bonnie's earlier comment, considering Delia had offered to cover the cost of their trip here.

"In any case, it's getting late, and we'll have to get up early if we want to make it to church in the morning. I've made up rooms for you all."

"Um, with all due respect—" it clearly took effort for Clemont to make himself call her by first name, "Delia, Bonnie and I don't really come from a particularly religious family. We've never actually been to church."

Delia smiled. "Oh, that's fine. You don't have to come if you don't want. I'll be honest, I'm not the most devoted adherent to Arceus myself, but I think it's a beautiful tradition and I'd love to have you all there with us."

~ ⁂ ~

"And thus Arceus did Judge true the selflessness and love for his pokémon of the Hero of Legend, and he did Judge that humanity was not devoid of love and kindness, and he did Judge that We could coexist in this world," the priest's chant was almost a song, with a meditative rhythm and melody to it. "And in his Mercy he did withhold the Judgement of Ruin, Amen."

Serena stared up at the murals on the richly decorated ceiling. The church's architecture did not resemble the rest of Sinjoh, nor of the temples to the minor gods—what science would call legendary pokémon—of the region. Nor did it resemble the architecture of Kalosian churches to Xerneus. It was a recreation of an altogether older style, one lost to history except for excavations of ruins, and churches to Arceus.

Among the murals of Arceus, Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina, there was another. The mural of the hero, his head radiating golden lines in a style, which though not quite the circular halo Kalocian art used to depict saintly figures, was unmistakably just that. That wasn't what drew her attention though. No, what drew her attention, particularly in the context of last night's discussion, was the hero's deep black hair, rendered in a spiky style which seemed quite out of place in the otherwise ancient painting. On the hero's shoulder sat no other than a pikachu, its yellow rendered in gold leaf, with sparkling rubies for cheeks.

Serena was sure it was coincidence, how could it be anything else, but it dragged up her worries about Ash's heroism. Worries which mirrored his mother's.

"Wow, the Hero of Myth really does look like Ash," Bonnie exclaimed, eager to finally be able to babble now that the sermon was done.

"Bonnie," Clemont hissed. "You can't compare Ash to the messiah, it's borderline sacrilegious."

"Why do you care?" Bonnie asked. "I thought you didn't believe in that sh—" Clemont slapped his hand over her mouth, muffling her out.

"Bonnie. We. Are. In. A. Church. It doesn't matter what you believe, have some respect for others. Where did you even learn that kind of language?"

Bonnie pouted, but stayed silent as they filed out of the building.

"So, what do you think of our little church?" Delia asked. "I know it's not quite as grand as the great Kalocian cathedrals to Xerneus, but I think it's beautiful all the same."

"The murals are very nice," Serena responded, her mind still on the strange boy in the painting.

"They are aren't they," Delia said. "I've always wondered how they're so well preserved after nearly five hundred years."

Ash interjected, "I'm gonna head over to Prof. Oak's to see my pokémon. Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, you guys wanna come with?"

Serena's mind seized on the necessary distraction, and she nodded. "I'd love to meet all your old pokémon, Ash."

"Me too!" Bonnie chimed in.

Clemont had a different idea. "The Prof. Oak? As in that Prof. Oak?"

Ash looked at him with a confused expression. "I don't know of any other Prof. Oaks, so yeah, I think?"

"Of course I want to meet him," Clemont exclaimed. "He's probably the most important pokémon researcher of our time."

Ash's apparent confusion remained unchanged, but he responded. "Well, alright, let's go."

~ ⁂ ~

"Oh, I remember this place from camp," Serena commented. "I didn't realize the camp was on Prof. Oak's own property."

Ash laughed. "Yeah, Oak's lab has a pretty big property attached to it. Kinda a pokémon preserve of sorts."

They walked up to the front door, where Ash knocked. The door opened to a bemused Prof. Oak. "Who is it?"

He paused. "Oh, Ash!" There was a note of surprise in his voice. "Back from Kalos so soon? Delia didn't tell me you were coming."

Ash scratched the back of his head. "She didn't know. Well, she kinda made me come, but she didn't think it would work this time."

"Ah, well it's a pleasure to see you as always, and I'm sure your pokémon will agree. Come on in." As they stepped inside, Oak addressed the rest of the group. "Hello, I'm Prof. Oak. It's always great to meet more of Ash's friends."

"Hi! I'm Bonnie!" Bonnie jumped in. "This ditz is my older brother Clemont!"

"Bonnie!" The girl deftly dodged as Clemont grabbed at her with his Aipom Arm, eliciting a laugh from Prof. Oak.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Clemont Laplace I assume? Inventor of the Clemontic Shower?"

"You've heard of me?" An expression of shock took over his face.

"Well, your showers are standard equipment in almost every pokémon center nowadays, so, yes," Oak remarked. He glanced at the arm on his back. "I'd be fascinated to hear about your more recent work, if you have time."

"Do I ever!"

"I'm Serena," Serena took the pause to introduce herself. "I don't know if you remember me from pokémon camp, it was a while ago."

Prof. Oak chuckled. "I didn't recognize you until you mentioned it, but it would be hard not to remember you. You and Ash were certainly a pair of troublemakers. Practically gave all us adults a heart attack when you disappeared into the woods for a couple hours."

Serena laughed, vaguely remembering the incident. "I suppose we were. I've grown out of it, can't comment for Ash." She glanced at the boy.

"Yes, Sycamore told me about the incident on Lumiose Tower. You really must stop trying your best to find trouble, Ash." He scolded the boy.

"I don't look for trouble, trouble finds me," Ash protested.

"Pika!" Pikachu gave him a light slap on the back of the head from his shoulder, making Serena giggle.

"Well, I assume you kids are here to visit Ash's other pokémon, so don't let me keep you."

Ash nodded. "We'll catch up after I've seen them."

"Actually," Clemont interrupted. "You guys go on ahead, I want to talk with Prof. Oak."

"Alright," Ash replied with a smile. "See you in a bit."

The remaining trio made their way out the back into the preserve.

More or less right as they exited the building, the ground started shaking.

"Oh no, run!" Ash yelled, as a cloud of dust approached them from the left. They broke into a sprint, and as the cloud got closer, Serena glanced over her shoulder to see a herd of stampeding tauros inside it.

The tauros finally began to slow, coming down to a more leisurely pace. Ash was the first to break off the sprint, walking over to them.

"I know you're excited to see me—" he patted one of the tauros on the head while another nuzzled him. "—but you can't keep stampeding every time I come back."

The tauros snorted, as if to say watch us. Ash sighed.

"I'm glad to see you too. All of you."

Serena felt her heart flutter as she observed how gentle Ash was with his pokémon, even though they'd been about to run them all over.

"Now, can you guys run out and call over everyone else?" One of the tauros snorted an affirmative, and the herd scattered in various directions.

"What now?" Serena asked Ash.

"I guess we wait."

They didn't have to wait long. The first group to arrive was announced by a squeal from Bonnie.

"It's so cute!"

"Osh!" A blue and white pokémon was trying to struggle out of her hug.

"Bonnie, let Oshawott go," Ash instructed. "I know he's cute, but don't squeeze him to death."

Oshawott glared at Bonnie as she let him go. "Wott!" he chirped angrily.

Ash grunted in pain as a gible jumped and bit his head. Promptly joined by a tackle which knocked him over from a much bigger pokémon Serena didn't recognize.

"Gible, Gliscore, you guys gotta stop doing that," Ash moaned in pain.

The encounters with the rest of Ash's pokémon went more smoothly as all of his companions gathered to give their greetings to their trainer.

Ash let out his Kalos team as well, introducing all the pokémon to each other.

When everything finally calmed down, Serena noticed where they were.

"Ash, do you recognize this place?" Ash looked at her with confusion.

She elaborated, "This is where we came out of the woods when we first met."

"Oh, huh," Ash replied, scratching the back of his head. "I don't really remember much of summer camp. It was a while ago."

Serena nodded. "I wonder, do you think we can find the tree where we met? Maybe it'd jog your memory."

Ash paused, before smiling. "Sure, that sounds fun! It was here in the woods, right? Should be close by. I think I remember chasing a poliwag through those bushes over there on the first day of camp."

~ ⁂ ~

It didn't take them too long before Serena recognized the tree. It was fairly distinctive, being one of the bigger trees in the area. As they got closer, Serena felt an unexpected feeling of dread which made the hair on the back of her neck prickle. She chalked it up to the traumatic experience she'd had there and approached the tree.

"Wow, you were right about it helping jog my memory," Ash commented. "I don't know how I forgot this place."

Serena smiled. "Well, at least you remember now. I was starting to think I'd imagined it all."

Ash laughed, "Not a chance. Didn't we come back here later on?"

Now it was Serena's turn to be forgetful. "Did we?"

"Yeah! I think we buried something here. Like a time capsule or something."

"Oh, right!"

"Hey look at this you guys," Bonnie pointed at a spot on the tree.

As she saw it, Serena felt butterfree in her stomach.

It was on the tree's bark at the bottom, nestled between two roots. Time hadn't been kind to it, but it could still be made out fairly clearly.

A heart with two letters in it.

Bonnie took on a devious smirk. "A + S, I wonder who that could be…"

The grass was slightly higher at the roots, as if dirt had been piled up there long ago.

"I think we carved it to mark where we buried the time capsule," Ash remarked, utterly oblivious to the symbol. He turned to Serena, "Do you think Fennekin can dig it up?"

"Hm, maybe," Serena let her out of her pokéball. "Fennekin, Ash and I buried something here a long time ago, do you think you can dig it up?"

"Kin!" The little fox pokémon chirped an affirmative, and promptly got to work.

She quickly unearthed a large metal lunchbox. No doubt it was stolen from one of the camp counselors as it was decidedly not a children's lunchbox, more the sort of rugged thing meant to take to a construction site or perhaps into the wilderness.

"Huh," Ash remarked. "I guess someone was pretty angry to find that missing. I think we'd remember if they'd found out it was us though, so I guess we never got caught."

Serena thought for a moment. "Wait, wasn't this Selene's lunchbox?"

Ash paused. "I think you might be right. Fits her style, I suppose. I wonder what she's doing these days." Serena nodded in agreement. Selene had been one of professor Oak's fellows and their counselor at the camp. She'd gone around everywhere dressed in the style of famous adventurers like Brandon, with a wide brimmed brown fedora and a bullwhip. From her stories, she'd almost been as reckless as Ash was now. Serena hoped she was okay.

"Never mind that," Bonnie interjected, a glint present in her eye which chilled Serena to the bone. "Open it!"

"Here goes nothing," Ash said, straining to pry open the rusted clasps.

Inside, remarkably preserved despite the passage of time, was a plush rhyhorn.

"Cornette!" Serena gasped. "I'd forgotten all about her." She gingerly picked up the plushie, before hugging it.

"Aren't you a bit old to have stuffed pokémon?" Bonnie commented wryly.

"Well, I wasn't back then," Serena glared at her, feeling a bit flush. "Besides, I'd had Cornette since I was a baby."

"Hey, there's something else in here," Ash interrupted, pulling out a book and dusting off the cover to reveal the words "Pokémon Atlas" embossed in it.

Serena giggled. "You never put that thing down at camp. You were always reading to me from it even though I couldn't understand a word of what you were saying at first."

"Well, pokémon are a universal language after all," Ash replied, opening the book up and paging through it. "Wait, there's something written in here." He turned back to the inside of the cover.

Serena glanced at it, and promptly felt like she'd bitten right into a tamato berry.

"Hi future me and Serena. I hope you like the gifts we left for you. Have you seen a lot of pokémon? I hope you have. Also, Serena wants me to ask if we're married for reals in the future. I hope you're having as much fun as we did this summer! Love Ash and Serena," Bonnie read aloud, the sing-song of her voice dripping with venomous intent.

Serena wanted to jump in the hole and let the earth swallow her.

"Well, it's not a crazy question I guess," Ash commented. You could hear a pin drop from a mile away. Bonnie's mouth hung as open as Serena's own. Ash glanced at them.

"I mean, I guess we dug it up too early, since we're still way too young for marriage, but who knows who we'll be married to ten years from now. I don't know the first thing about marriage, but my mom always says it's supposed to be someone who makes you happy, and you definitely make me happy, Serena."

Serena's mouth tried to form words, but only succeeded in gulping air like a Magikarp.

"What?" Ash asked, completely oblivious as per usual to both Serena's inner turmoil and the words coming out of his own mouth.

Bonnie was quicker to compose herself. "Y'know Ash, I'm only 9 and even I know you're supposed to ask a girl to dinner before proposing to her."

"Huh?" Ash looked even more confused. "I mean, we eat dinner together all the time."

Serena continued to gape at him helplessly, adding to her already steaming mortification.

Bonnie facepalmed, her usual teasing demeanor replaced with an exasperation matching Serena's own. "How are you this stupid? You've been travelling the world since I was still in diapers." She sighed. "No, Ash, a date. You, Serena, alone at a nice restaurant?"

"Oh, well I guess there's a lot of nice places in Kalos if you wanna go sometime Serena. I still think we're way too young to get married."

Bonnie smashed her face against the tree, in sync with Pikachu slapping Ash on the back of his head.

"Are you okay, Bonnie?" Ash asked.

"Just… fine…" the little girl groaned out.

He turned to Serena. "Serena, why are you so quiet?"

She finally snapped out of her stupor. "I'd love to get dinner with you when we get back to Kalos, Ash," she stammered out. "And yeah, I guess we can hold off on the wedding." She laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. When she saw Ash's look of complete and abject confusion, it only caused her to buckle over laughing even harder, which set Bonnie off into a fit of giggles.

~ ⁂ ~

They waved goodbye to Delia and Prof. Oak from the ferry. Serena grabbed Ash's free hand into her own, causing him to flash her a confused look. She smiled, and that was enough to get him to smile back before turning to look at the pier. They were still close enough that she could see a look of comprehension flash across Delia's face before turning into an even bigger smile.

She heard Clemont whisper to Bonnie. "What's up with Ash and Serena?"

"Won't you ever learn to mind your own business?" The girl parroted back. "If Ash wants to tell us he'll tell us. Don't be rude."

~ ⁂ ~

"I'll be the mom, and you'll be the dad, and Poliwag can be the baby," Serena happily explained the game.

"That sounds fun!" Ash replied. "Maybe when we grow up we can play it with a real baby!"

"Yeah, we can play house in an actual house!" Serena answered.

"I'd like that," Ash responded with a smile.

"I would too."

Created from a writing prompt ChatGPT threw at me:
Ash and Serena find a time capsule they buried as kids, containing promises they made to each other.

Please criticize viciously, but constructively.

A big thanks to XCABAL for beta reading prior to publication.