If you haven't read it yet, be sure to check out sunshineisdelicious' "Performance" one-shot, not only because it's a situation rarely seen in fanfics between Ash and Serena, but also because it deals with something terribly true: working hard is not a good idea. We're a little 'matrixed' by anime, which tells us that the one who works the hardest will succeed: that's wrong! Very wrong! We all have a limit, and when we try to go beyond it, we only reduce our performance, not forgetting that when we work less than others, we tend to find ways to be more efficient. I tried both versions: working to the point of not talking to a human being for a week, and working when I felt like it, saving my weekends and allowing myself to continue other activities. It's with the second one that I got my best result ^^.

Pidgey, even hidden among the lavendes, I can see you.

Once the meal was served, it was fair to say that things were off to a good start. Ash was eating with his usual gluttony and speed, but his good mood would soon dry up. Come on, if he ignored the food that washed up on the edges of the plate and just looked at the center, he could boast of having eaten three quarters of his meal. It was hopeless, and it was even more frustrating when the person in front of you turned his fork in the plate without swallowing anything.

"Serena, aren't you going to eat?"

The dragon snapped her out of her reverie, and the trainer raised her head to watch her other pokemons eat right next to her.

"Since we've got some time, I thought Plusle and Minun could make their debut at this contest."

The brothers' ears perked up. Their training had been severely hampered by the events at Mount Chimney, and they wouldn't be able to make up for it with experience, unlike the other members of the group.

"I know these aren't the best conditions, and I would have preferred it if Pancham had been able to join you as we had planned. But procrastinating won't help." She still didn't feel that they were excited, so the young girl added: "Would it make you feel better if Sylveon or Braixen came along? We'll only have an afternoon to settle in, but they're more than capable."

The two bunnies exchanged hesitant glances. Serena crouched down beside them and stroked their heads in encouragement.

"I'm a little scared, too... a lot, actually," she admitted. "But you know, someone once told me that nothing we do is..."

"Char," she heard a reproving growl, as if he knew what she was about to say.

"Almost nothing we do is useless," she quickly corrected, "which is why it's better to try..." The fire type claws squeaked. "Try, as long as you avoid bad ideas." His tail hit the ground. "And getting hurt... Charizard! You're not helping!"

"Min, Minun," the rabbit suggested wearily.

"No, wait, what I'm trying to say is that even though it's hard..." She looked at her dragon as she put her hand to her heart. "Some things are worth striving for," she breathed.

Braixen looked down at Sylveon, wondering if she had noticed the strange tone their trainer had taken.

"Sylv?" the uncomfortable pokemon asked.

Well, the fairy type hadn't noticed anything. But did that mean the vixen was over-interpreting things? No, of course not, it was just that the others around her, humans and pokemons alike, were always having fun competing to see who could be the blindest.

"Min, Minu, Nun?"

Or the stupidest, Braixen thought as Serena blinked several times, not understanding what the blue was asking. To help her, Minun pretended to laugh, arching his back and spreading his legs on both sides of his body, as if he wanted to make himself taller or wider or...

"Wattson will surely be watching, yes," Serena realized.

"Nun!" the pokemon shouted, his hair standing on end.

"Think of it as an opportunity to reassure him that things are looking up." Minun tapped his foot on the ground, once, twice, until it became a real drum roll. "Please Minun, it's at least worth a try."

"No, no and no! Not like this, not now, not with so little preparation! Serena, I don't want Wattson to look at me and think I've got Confusion. So I'll pass, you'll let me pass, because no matter what you think, I can assure you that I have no regrets about missing this great opportunity to make a fool of myself on stage!"

And an Arm Thrust! One! Right between the little monster's neck and vertex.

"It hurts," growled Minun, lightning flashing in his cheeks.

"I hope so," sneered Pancham, a dark aura in his palms.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" yelled Plusle before ducking behind Braixen and Sylveon. "That's it for me," the little pokemon said once he was safely under cover.

"Calm down! Pancham, Minun, I'm not joking. Minun! Don't jump on Mister's head! Oh, no, no, no, please."

Serena covered her eyes in despair as people left their seats screaming in surprise. She remained in this position for a good ten broken plates before she went after the rascals.

"Wounded, wounded, not to be messed with!" Serena shouted after crashing into the table where Pancham had been standing a second earlier. "Yeah, yeah, those are my pokemons... I'm sorry about your blouse, but it doesn't look too... Ah, it was blue... You know, sir, red isn't so bad, in fact, it goes very well with your complexion."

A little more and the young girl's nose was in the bilious stage. But the man threatening her wasn't a bad guy, and he quickly regained his civility in front of the dragon, who politely apologized that he would have to rip his throat out with his fangs if he didn't calm down soon.

"Charizard... Please tell me there's something I can save. Anything, even a fork," Serena begged in the face of disaster.

"Charicha," he assured her with a reassuring wink.

The trainer needed support, and she could count on her fire reptile. With his build, his rock-melting flame, all he needed was a growl to command calm and respect. Ready to defend porcelain and glass, Ash bravely stepped between the two monsters.

"Let's calm down now, if you continue I'll..."

"Go bill and coo with Serena instead of getting in our way," Minun hissed, his eyes still glued to his enemy.

"Coo... Coo? N-No, we're just talking. A-As friends, because that's what we are. Just friends. And there's not a shadow of Pidgey between us!" confused the former human.

"Tell us again after you've had your dozen eggs, okay?" grumbled Pancham.

"I... And why are you agreeing to this?"

"Because the obvious."

"Just the obvious."

"Thank you!" Braixen shouted in the distance.

The fake pokemon returned to his trainer, head bowed, wings outstretched, and confessed with a dejected look on his face:

"They're too strong for me. Much too strong."

Serena stroked her friend's head to comfort him, but she still found it hard to understand how the dragon had been defeated when he hadn't received a single attack. Or perhaps Minun and Pancham had mastered psychic abilities she was unaware of.

"Chaaar," Ash apologized again.

But his intervention had not been in vain. The two pokemons still hadn't resumed hostilities and remained in their positions, staring at each other.

"And you don't mind? Serena leaves you on the sidelines when it's your turn to perform," the electric pokemon growled.

"Oh, you want me to thank you?"

"You didn't work just to watch us!"

The Panda crossed his arms, the leaf stuck between his lips moving from one corner of his mouth to the other as he held the blue's gaze.

"I didn't work to keep you from participating."

Minun lowered his ears, suddenly ashamed that he'd tried to use Pancham as an excuse.

"You know very well. Maybe Plusle will pull through, but I'm sure you've seen that..."

"You need more time, don't you? Fine, take it here, take it to the next city, get better and better and maybe we'll see your first performance for the Grand Festival. "

"Just this once," the rabbit tensed.

"Until the next one," the panda finished.

Minun bit his cheek as his brother slowly approached.

"I don't want Serena to be ashamed of us either," Plusle admitted.

"That didn't stop a certain Ashmander from rushing headlong into Hoenn's best coordinator," quipped the vixen, who had also approached. "And believe me, you can hardly do worse than him."

"Was it that bad?" Minun asked.

"He broke all records," Braixen sighed.

"You're exaggerating," Ash tried in a low voice.

"She was booed by the crowd, so no, I'm not exaggerating," the fox grinned, not particularly fond of the memory. "Still, even though I still think you could and should have been more careful... She was grateful to you, really grateful."

"Because that's Ash, she always forgives Ash everything," Plusle pointed out.

"She forgives Ash too much," the fox agreed. "But maybe she sensed why he wanted to win so badly... And why losing wasn't such a big deal," she finished, turning to the fake pokemon.

The shapeshifter's tail flame crackled softly at the memory, while a vague smile crept across her lips. It was hard for the two rabbits to understand, hard for pokemons who didn't have to leave to understand a trainer who had to constantly leave his friends in the hope of achieving his dream. That's why Ash knew better than anyone:

"I was there. I was just happy to be there with her. And I think Serena will be just as happy to dance with you."

Minun held back a desperate cry. He couldn't just be left in his corner to complain about himself. No, they always had to come along and pull him, push him, maybe even hit him in the back of the head with an Arm Thrust. Damn it, he should never have gone along with them, it really was the worst mistake of his life!

"So we're in?" asked Plusle.

"Of course we are!" the blue shouted.

While Plusle ruffled her brother's fur with a few mocking strokes, Braixen approached Pancham and whispered:

"You really surprised me."

"I know I should have kept my cool, but it was just... You know."

"Ah, no, no, I wasn't talking about that. What surprised me was that you were capable of saying intelligent things," the vixen scoffed.

"You're the one who said that?" the panda was annoyed.

A nervous call for help reached the Pokémon, who were far too busy to notice that the Kalosian was being confronted by a dozen disgruntled trainers, with only Sylveon to defend her.

"SERENA!"

Thirty-six plates, twenty-four glasses, three benches, one table - that was the heavy toll taken by Nurse Joy, plus two pokemons, victims of heart attacks from the soap their trainer had given them.

Thank Arceus it wasn't me, thank Arceus it wasn't me, Ash kept repeating to himself, stuck in front of his plate.

Besides, why was he the only one sitting at the table while everyone else was training (including Pancham and Minun, who had recovered after a good ten minutes of no flow)? Simply because Serena had insisted that he finish his croquettes, after it had taken a whole hour to clean up the mess. Ash had tried to protest, but the young girl had reminded him that it was wrong to spoil things, and then there was this one thing the shapeshifter was totally unprepared for.

Here we go again! His scales had turned as red as Plusle's ears just thinking about it. Why exactly didn't charizards retain the color of charmeleons? Arceus had better have a good explanation for that bad move. In fact, not only would the God of the Universe have to answer to the former trainer, but Mrs. Roc as well, since he was certain that she was the reason why Serena had used such an unfair technique. How exactly could he compete? How could he fight against a wink from Serena, the soft whisper she slipped into his ear, and most of all...

To please me.

Stop it! Let that image disappear from his mind, let every sound stop monopolizing his thoughts, let...

"Get lost!" he shouted at an unfortunate pidgey that had come to take a bite from his plate.

With a gasp, he fell back into his seat. Serena wasn't exactly a friend anymore, no matter how hard he tried to pretend otherwise in front of the others. He wasn't at the Pancham stage of a dozen eggs either, and even a single egg seemed impossible. Still, he couldn't bring himself to say a single word about his trainer, his partner, Serena. He simply didn't have the strength anymore.

"You really don't want to leave me?" Ash growled at the bird that was pecking at his plate.

The pokemon flew off to join its trainer, and the former human followed with his eyes, noticing some cutlery left on a table. Ash looked through the window to see if his trainer was busy with her pokemons outside, then went to grab a knife and fork. He didn't mind eating with his fingers, but sometimes he needed to remember the little details that made him human, except now the fork could have gone all the way into his mouth.

Had he really grown so much? What was certain was that Serena would no longer be able to stroke his head so easily. Then I'll have to get down. Ash smiled softly as he looked at the girl crouching near the battlefield. He'd noticed it ever since he'd become Charmander, this tendency she had to get down to the level of her pokemons to explain her performance ideas, embellishing her words with a few diagrams in the sand.

"Look at this! Even this pokemon eats better than you!"

The fork slipped from his mouth and crashed into the plate, splattering his stomach with sauce. As he grabbed a napkin to wipe up, he noticed the trainer pointing at him, showing his little brother the proper way to behave at the table.

"I'm not a pokemon!"

Just as well, Ash wasn't either. But he wasn't ready to shout it out to strangers.

"So use your fork and knife instead of embarrassing me by eating with your fingers."

The little one mumbled a few words and pleaded with his eyes for the two trainers in front of him. So there were four of them, reminding Ash of how he used to travel to Kalos or Hoenn.

"Isn't it a little dangerous to leave this kind of pokemon unattended?" the girl in the group asked.

The shapeshifter realized that he was staring at them. Not maliciously, of course, or at least he hoped they didn't interpret it that way, but his reptilian face didn't exactly inspire confidence. He smiled quickly to clear up any misunderstanding, but his sharp fangs clashed with his general intention, making the trainer even more tense.

"If you're scared of him now, what's it going to be like tomorrow?" mocked his companion right next to her.

"Oh, stop with your silly jokes," the young girl reprimanded him. "I'm under enough pressure without you adding to it."

With a wave of her chin, she pointed to the Kalosian outside who was directing a fireworks display of lightning and flames, admitting that her own combinations weren't that advanced.

"You worked hard. Even though this is your first contest, don't be intimidated, and remember that we're all here to cheer you on."

"Chari."

The fake pokemon quickly looked down and picked up his fork as the trainers turned to him in surprise. He couldn't help but nod, because hearing those words had reminded him of what he himself had said to Serena. Only they'd just heard a Charizard growling in a strange tone.

"And if it makes you feel any better, no one is crazy enough to use such a belligerent species in a contest. So take a deep breath, tell yourself that I'll be the one having a hard time when I take on that Charizard in the Hoenn League, and win that ribbon," he finished with a wink.

"Will you help me train this afternoon?" the coordinator asked.

"Of course I will!"

Serena also asked for his help with showcases. Even if all he could do was give his opinion on the performances she presented to him.

"Thank you."

Ash dropped his fork a second time, his mouth wide open. The boy was surprised, too, but not as much as usual. This, what this girl had just done... Was that how Serena thanked him? No... not quite... The trainer touched his cheek, Ash touched his lips, the two of them intimately connected by the same lost, blissful air.

"Want a second one to wake you up?" the coordinator scoffed.

"It's... it's okay..." he stammered.

Ash didn't move until they had finished their meal and left. And even then, he continued to stare at his plate, oblivious to the flame at the end of his tail blackening the seat of the bench.

"Charizard, if you've really had enough, just say so instead of getting angry and burning the furniture in the Center."

The fake pokemon quickly regained control of his tail flame and apologized to Joy.

"That'll be enough this time. But you're still skinny, and if your trainer doesn't want you to leave the table before you're done, it's mainly so you can recover."

"Char."

"If you understand, I'm counting on you not to ruin my center."

That wasn't his intention! And what was this reputation charizards had? The nurse looked out the window and saw Serena training among the other trainers. She frowned and muttered:

"Still. You don't leave a barely trained Charizard alone."

She made no further comment. If she'd said more, Ash's heart would have given out anyway. With his appetite finally suppressed, he cleared his plate and cutlery and even wiped the table. Maybe this would make up for it in the eyes of the nurse who would be judging them tomorrow, so he wouldn't have to leave with negative points before the competition had even begun.

"Thirty-six plates, twenty-four glasses, three benches..." he heard the nurse grumbling in the distance.

Come on! Serena will do the job tomorrow and Joy won't have anything to complain about. And let's not forget that even the rookie coordinator had complimented the beauty of the sequences, so he could be a little confident.

But if he'd forgotten or willfully ignored it, Ash had to remember that performances weren't just about attacking. The vixen was doing a good job of compensating for her partners' scrambling. Plusle and Minun were also doing relatively well for pokemons just returning to training after a long, enforced break. So why wasn't it working? Why, instead of pulling them up, was the vixen highlighting their difficulties? Why did correctness become grotesque when they worked together?

Ash approached Pancham and Sylveon, who had remained on the sidelines - wasn't Sylveon supposed to be participating? - who watched the rehearsal with the same concern as the shapeshifter. It's disastrous. The attacks are nice, their moves are pretty good, but it's disastrous because...

Ash understood when he saw Serena's awkward steps. He was certain of it when she failed to catch the stick Braixen threw at her, even though the vixen had been careful not to send it toward her injured arm. A pokemon performer never stood behind her partner to give orders. She participated, she danced, she had to be in rhythm not only mentally, but physically as well. And she not only had to be flawless herself, but also coordinate the rest of her pokemons. Conductor and musician... It was worse than that. The orchestra could continue to play without its conductor, a pokemon could win without its trainer's orders, all of that could be made up as long as the others put in enough effort.

But in a performance, everyone's mistakes were visible. If a pokemon fell, all the attention would be on it, and the others could not distract it. If the pokemons performed perfectly, but Serena got confused in her steps... On the same stage, the rules applied to everyone.

Ash waited with the others, hoping she'd just need to get her bearings. But interestingly enough, the more Serena rehearsed, the more mediocre she became. Not the kind of theme that would sell well if it were made into a movie. Although sometimes they accepted strange things, like this movie with an egotistical Clefairy who said more insults than he spoke and cheated to win his fights. Ash would still admit to bursting out laughing in the theater, much to the shame of Gary.

"I don't think what's going on here is very funny," Pancham growled.

Ash put his hands in front of his mouth and realized that he was smiling. He was wrong! There was no way he was going to make fun of Serena! He'd just gone a little too far with his thoughts and... I hope she didn't see that.

"One more time!"

Serena was sweating, her left hand shaking. She'd lost her automatisms to the point where she was becoming a nuisance to her pokemon, and as far as leading them was concerned, it was best not to talk about it. But why did the trainer have to be there?

"Plus?"

She had stopped without realizing it, and her partners must have wondered what was wrong with her.

"You're doing fine, it's me who's not up to it." She stroked the rabbit's head. Not only had they not lost, unlike her, they'd actually improved. "You didn't want to go on stage when you were practicing on the sly? And your movements... Pancham, I didn't think you had such teaching skills."

She asked them with a smile, but knowing that they had continued their efforts so that she could return to the contests when she wanted to, and that in the end she was the one who spoiled it all because she was the only one who didn't...

"We didn't train that hard," Minun said casually.

Maybe he was the only one who could make her lie believable. At the same time, he'd been the last one to start training, and there was no need for Serena to know that he'd redoubled his efforts to get back up to speed. It would also be a shame to admit that he was still far behind his brother, who had asked Pancham for help as soon as he had recovered from his injuries. As for Braixen and Sylveon, yes, they had worked on their steps a bit, but nothing extraordinary either.

Serena looked down at her hand, which was trembling even more. She'd been moping too much lately and couldn't go on. If she didn't, she could give up the idea of facing Lisia or even Aria right now. She went back to work, and from the look of determination on her face, Ash could tell she was ready for an all-nighter. The best plan if she wanted to fail tomorrow.

He left her to it for a while, in case his intuition was wrong. But when he saw her getting upset and stubbornly going through the motions, he knew he had to intervene. Only he didn't know how to convince his friend to stop her important training and distract her.

Ash counted on his fingers what the coordinator liked: her pokemons, pastries, performances, fashion... Actually, he didn't have to think too hard, because he'd seen in Kalos that a certain activity always excited the artist. So much so that he never had the heart to deny her that little pleasure, even if it meant hours of annoyance waiting for him.

"Braixen! Don't you think you should take a break?"

Despite the trainer's protests, the fox stopped and refused to continue. At a glance, she understood Ash's concern for the coordinator and suspected that he wanted to do something about it. The shapeshifter approached Serena, carefully pantomiming as he spoke.

"The shops must still be open at this hour, so what do you say we go and see what they're selling? I'm sure we'll find some clothing stores you'll like."

The girl could always try to refuse, give him the best reasons in the world to keep training, but it wouldn't change the fact that with Braixen on his side, Ash's victory was assured.

The hardest part had been dragging her into the city, but as soon as she saw the first clothing stores, Serena's resistance melted away. The shapeshifter was somehow relieved to see that her passion for fashion was quickly returning. But damn it, Arceus, that was a long time, especially when you were sitting in the corner waiting for her to finish her fittings. And, he could see, it was more than just one or two items.

"It's still going to take a long time," Minun asked.

"It looks like it," Ash despaired.

"Why did you come up with something so boring?"

The fake pokemon frowned, or as close to a frown as he could get. He noticed the golden chain the rabbit was wearing. And it wasn't just that, he'd also found himself a scale model of a biker jacket with a krookodile's head on the back. A la mode d'Unys, he might say, but he was not sure if Serena would approve.

"For something that bothers you, I see you haven't wasted any time."

"As long as we're here..."

"Might as well make the most of it!" Plusle shouted and jumped at his brother.

Unstoppable reasoning. Especially when you're wearing a blue jacket with a golden zipper and a white cap with a black lightning bolt on it. A cap Ash would not have minded at all.

"Well, I'd better go help Serena."

"Change?" Plusle chuckled.

"No!" the former human choked. "But she must be finished with her fittings and we have to help her tidy up," he explained, scratching his cheek.

"It's nice that you're so devoted," Minun admitted.

It meant that the blue, and by extension the red, had no intention of getting their hands dirty. Ash was the only one to join Serena, and as he'd suspected, she'd already reached the limit of what she could carry, with a pile of clothes still waiting on the cabin bench. The former human took his share under the girl's grateful eyes.

"Just above you on the left, that's where it was."

Ash put the sweater back on the belt. It would be so much easier if the shopkeepers would take care of it, but that didn't seem to be the house policy.

"Wouldn't you rather go have fun with the others?"

"Chari."

"Shopping doesn't really appeal to you."

"Zarrrrd," he admitted.

"But it was a good idea. I had a lot of fun and I think the others did too," she laughed.

They had to be somewhere in the middle of this ocean of clothes, yes. It was only natural that they shared their trainer's passions. It was the same with his own pokemons; they were gourmets, just like him.

"Oh, Charizard! What do you think of this scarf?" I'm sure it will suit you.

Orange and red, not really his style. In a pinch, if she could find him a hat, she might be able to pique his interest. Ash grimaced; at times like this, he felt like he wasn't really his pokemon, but a transformed human. Someone who already had his own tastes and preferences. A boy who, as he put away the ribboned blouses, coats, and dresses, wondered how his friend had the courage to try them all on. And he wasn't exaggerating; almost every garment in the store had been tried on, except... Serena had just picked up a sleeveless sweater, one of the few things she hadn't tried on. She stood in front of it for a moment, then put it down with a resigned sigh.

Ash's heart clenched as he thought about all the clothes he'd just put away and cursed himself several times for not noticing the obvious. Her shoulder, she had not worn any uncovered shoulder garment! The shapeshifter took the sweater the girl had left behind and quickly led her back to the changing rooms. She didn't have time to ask him what he had taken from her before he handed her the garment and closed the curtain.

"Char."

Serena reopened the curtain tentatively. Another one of her pokemon's quirks that she would have a hard time understanding.

"The cut and color don't really appeal to me, you know."

She wouldn't have stared at it if it were true. He closed the curtain again, holding the edges firmly. No matter how hard Serena tried to pull him aside, she was no match for his dragon's strength.

"Let me out of here!"

"Zar!"

"This is imprisonment! Oppression!"

"Rizard, Zard."

"Charizard, if you don't let go of the curtain and Jenny catches you, you can always beg me to rescue you."

"Char, charichar."

"You're impossible, do you know that?"

"Rizard," he nodded without a trace of remorse.

Silence in the cabin. Serena listed her remaining options and slowly came to the conclusion that apart from threatening to deprive him of his pokepuffs, a particularly violent thing she preferred to reserve for situations of extreme urgency, this was her only chance:

"If I try it, quickly, will you let me out?"

"Chari," he promised.

She changed her clothes, but wished she hadn't seen the result. Too bad this kind of place was dedicated to people admiring their future purchases. Unless she was just looking at the black veil itself, Serena could hardly avoid her reflection.

"Charichar?"

"It's not worth looking at."

She was adamant, and under other circumstances he probably wouldn't have insisted. But after what had happened at Mrs Roc's, Braixen was in real danger of killing him if he didn't catch up quickly. He swallowed, clenched both fists, took a deep breath, stepped back, stood still for a good three seconds, decided to take another step forward, took another deep breath. Please don't tell me you've already taken it off. He opened the curtain. Serena's eyes widened in horror as she hid her shoulder as best she could.

"I'm not amused," she squeaked.

He knew it, and so he closed the curtain to make sure she wouldn't have to endure the curious stares of passersby.

"It suits you," he admitted.

She pursed her lips. The truth was, she liked the sleeveless black sweater as well. She'd even imagined it going well with the pretty skirt she'd spotted in another store and some matching accessories.

"It's horrible, don't you think?"

She'd unwrapped the bandage so he could see the burn and the teeth marks. Let him run away now, like he did with Mrs. Roc. But he surprised her when he grabbed her arms and forced her to turn around, making sure she couldn't turn away from the mirror. His face inches from her bruised shoulder, he whispered to her:

"I asked you to hate it, not yourself."

Serena shivered as he looked at her, undistracted by the mark on her skin, just her, only her.

"Don't I disgust you?"

"No. Of course I don't."

Serena gave him a small smile.

"Then what bothered you last time?"

The fake pokemon flinched. He was already afraid of the vixen's reaction if he told the truth, so he certainly wasn't going to confide in the main character.

"Don't tell me Braixen's right," the girl laughed.

"Char..."

Mockingly, her smile grew wider and wider.

"We've been traveling together for a while now. You know my clothes aren't my real skin, so it's normal for me to lose them from time to time."

All he wanted was for her to stop losing them when he was around. He should still be able to respect his friend's privacy without looking like an undressing phobe.

"Besides, you can see that I don't wear the same outfit at night, and you don't mind. Even if you've never seen me in a towel, it's not that different from putting on my pajamas."

You want me to stay when you change, don't you? Or so he thought, until white smoke came out of his mouth. It frightened him to imagine the scene more seriously, and what was worse, he was beginning to think it wasn't such a bad idea: They were sleeping together, in the same bed, glued together, even though he'd done everything he could to avoid it. From the moment Serena left him no choice, it wasn't really his fault anymore... No way! he molested himself.

Serena raised an eyebrow, wondering what was going through her pokemon's mind. Besides, it was getting awfully hot in this dressing room.

"We should go, don't you think?"

"Char? Char... Cha," he pouted.

"This sweater doesn't look so bad on me. Maybe I should take it."

She pretended to hesitate, but she'd already made up her mind. Of course, she didn't think she'd be able to uncover her shoulders right away, and this outfit would probably stay in her bag for a long time. But I'll wear it from time to time if you like it. Only with you.

Notes : One of the things I loved about XY&Z was that, unlike the other seasons, the humans were physically involved in the fight/performance. This manifested itself in Ash-Greninja, where we feared it would be Ash who couldn't take a punch, and Serena, whose progress we saw from performance to performance (which is why the contest in Journey was a wash). I thought it was great that the mistake could only come from the human, when the Pokémon had done everything perfectly.