Amourshipping : One Day Off

Chapter 12

"Yeah, actually." Ash replied. "I'm guessing you did."

"That I did. I got to sleep in a bed with you. How wouldn't I be able to sleep well?" Serena asked, a flirtatious tone to her voice.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe the fact that the tent is haunted?" 

Serena shuddered, which made Ash laugh, fully aware of her discomfort around the supernatural elements of the world, remembering their experience at the house they had believed to haunted, but in reality was just a small Espurr. "I'm only kidding." Ash said with a chuckle, reassuring her. 

Serena sighed, quick to forgive and forget the whole affair. She instead tightened her grip around Ash and held onto him tighter than before. 

"H-Hey, I thought we had to get up." Ash said, feeling his heart race when Serena rested her head on his chest. 

"I never said we had to get up. And besides, I want to enjoy cuddling you a little longer, Ashy." Serena gave her reply slyly, with a grin and a giggle, enjoying herself. 

Ash sighed and allowed her to. He instead, placed a hand upon the top of her head and said "Never even thought you could be so mischievous, Serena." 

"Didn't have a reason to be" she replied, smiling to herself, loving absolutely every second of this, as Ash was, only he was out of his general comfort zone. 

They remained like this for a further while, before they sighed and admitted they were going to have to get up at some point. Both of them were welcomed to a chorus of teasing by Bonnie, who as it turned out, had been eavesdropping on them. This information caused both of them to flush a dark shade of scarlet. Clemont let out an amused sigh and served them their breakfast. After they had eaten, a map was produced, and Clemont pointed out their route. 

"The map said there was something dangerous up ahead, didn't it?" Ash asked, studying the map. To him, it looked perfectly normal. There were no obvious hazards highlighted. 

"It's apparently a natural 'living labyrinth' according to the map." Clemont explained. 

"How the heck can a labyrinth be alive?" Serena asked, disbelief in her voice evident. 

"According to this, the Pokémon here rely on the trees to fertile the soil, which in turn provides them with plants that they eat. In order to speed up this process, some of the grass type Pokémon use Growth on the trees in order for them to grow quicker. When the trees grow, the roots underground toss and turn the soil, making it richer. This makes the plants grow larger and more plentiful for the Pokémon here. Now, the bad news about this is that the Pokémon now use Growth so rapidly that trees and vines and the likes grow all over the tracks, and sometimes around travelers. We're basically very likely to get separated during this." Clemont explained at length. 

Serena shuddered, "And that, combined with those reports about this forest..." 

"We might as well have just gone straight through the forest to start with." Ash sighed. "We've got to go through it here anyway. We'd have been quicker going straight through. And we might have avoided this maze." 

"A bit late now, Ash." Bonnie chipped in. 

"Why the heck are they hosting a Showcase here?! They couldn't pick Lumious City, or Shalour City? It had to be the scary forest town?" Serena voiced out aloud in disbelief. "Who runs these events? Why the town with the memory erasing forest? Doesn't that seem a bit dangerous to anyone else?" 

Ash put his hand onto Serena's shoulder. Calming her down quickly, though she still maintained everything she had just said made sense, and to both Ash and Clemont, it did. 

"In any case, we should go in pairs, holding the others hand, or just keeping ahold of each other. That way, if we get separated, we won't be on our own, or, we'll notice if one of us does go missing." Clemont suggested. "I'll go with Bonnie, for obvious reasons. And you two go together... Again, for obvious reasons." 

Ash and Serena both nodded. All feelings aside, that made the most logical sense.  

After packing up their tents, and holding the hands of the partners, the group began to make its way down the forest path.   

Serena's grip onto Ash tightened as they walked through the forest. She never did particularly like forests since the event in Pallet Town. That aside, this forest wasn't exactly inviting either. Not to mention the mysterious goings on in the forest already. It was like a recipe for disaster.

"Relax, Serena." Ash said. "Worst comes to it, I'll protect you." 

Serena smiled slightly, warmed by Ash's words. Silent walking then ensued. 

"Clemont, how far do you think it'll be until we're through?" Ash asked.

Silence.

"Clemont?"

Silence.

Ash and Serena turned around. Clemont and Bonnie were gone.

"Oh, well that's just great." Ash sighed. Now where the heck were they supposed to go?

"How did they get separated from us?" Serena asked. "We've been walking in a straight line. How did they loose us?"

There was a minute of confused silence. Neither of them had any idea whatsoever. To be frank, both of them were slightly afraid of the forest all of the sudden.

Serena's grip on Ash tightened.

Surrounding them, the leaves began to rustle out of nowhere, breaking the previously calm surroundings. Shadows began moving around them. A gust of wind blew through the area, and in front of Ash and Serena, appeared three Ghost type Pokémon. 

Dusknoir, Gengar and Mismagius. 

"Those are the Pokémon messing with people?..." Ash said, thinking aloud.

The three Pokèmon's eyes glowed. A power dormant in Ghost types awakened. 

Blackness ensued.