Take With You

Running Late (part II)

"I'd say you'd owe him one, don't you think?" Shauna teased.

"How can I ever repay him? Countless times he's done so much for me unconditionally. I used to be so unsure of my own future, and he's pushed me so far to become the person I am today. Its a debt I could never repay." Serena weakly smiled. "Sure I'll do things for him here and there, like bake him cookies, treat him while he's sick, battle for him-"

"Wait, you battled for him?" Shauna looked at her curiously.

Serena laughed nervously, "Yeah. One day, we were all camping by a stream. You know Ash, always training.~ But that day, he and his pokemon were training in the water, which Ash catches a cold from.

The next morning, he came out from his tent clearly sick. He started to walk towards me, and collapsed in my arms unexpectedly, I didn't know what to do and he was talking crazy!~"

"What did he say?" Shauna giggled.

"...Nothing important..." Serena blushes, "Anyway, I took him back to bed and treated him in the tent."

Shauna tried to hold back a laugh and blush as Serena said what could've easily been misinterpreted by anyone else.

"That's when Clemont and Bonnie went into town to find medicine for his fever.

After they left me and Ash alone, this rockstar Jimmy guy and his pikachu named Spike came looking for Ash wanting a battle right away.

And if he woke Ash up, he would've accepted Jimmy's challenge even though he was in no condition to do so."

"Why didn't you just ask that Jimmy guy to come back later or something?" Shauna asked.

"I tried! But he had a really loud electric guitar and kept yelling, I couldn't get a word through to him. It's like his head was almost as dense as Ash was." Serena laughed. "So instead, I battled him for Ash.

Everything was going just fine until Clemont and Bonnie came back from town with the medicine, they began to treat Ash secretly inside the tent while Jimmy and I battled. I don't know how Ash could've recovered so quickly, so in the end, Ash caught me wearing his clothes and battling with-"

"YOU WORE HIS CLOTHES!?" Shauna's whisper sounded like she was yelling, her face shocked at what she heard. A voice came from behind her seat down the aisle.

"Would you two young ladies like a drink?" The female flight attendant pulled a stainless steel cart with glasses, juices, and sparkling drinks in glass bottles that looked like alcohol.

"Oh, we're all only sixteen ma'am!" Shauna nervously laughs.

"This isn't alcohol.~" The flight attendant giggled. "Here, this was imported all the way from Mount Silver." She took the dark brown bottle off the cart, popped the cork off, and poured the drink into three separate cups. "Enjoy!" She hands the drinks to the two of them and pushes the stainless steel cart further down the aisle.

Serena was given two glasses, one for when Miette wakes up. From the back of the seat in front of Miette, Serena flopped down a small plastic table and placed the drink on top, just under where her screen was.

"So, what was I saying?" Serena wondered as she took a sip of the sparkling beverage.

"You're going to tell me why you were wearing his clothes!" Shauna demanded. "Wait... did you two..?"

"I just said he was sick!" Serena exclaimed. "I wore his clothes because I thought I could fool Jimmy into thinking I was Ash. Which I did."

"So, he just never noticed you leaving Ash's tent with his clothes?" Shauna skeptically asked. "Or, he just never saw you coming out of your own tent wearing seemingly different clothes?" Shauna takes the first sip from her bubbly beverage.

A bead of sweat formed on Serena's forehead. "I actually...changed in Ash's tent..."

Upon hearing that, Shauna began to choke on the drink. She quickly recovered and gasped for air, "--Y-you changed in front of Ash!?" Despite not being able to laugh to her heart's content, Shauna managed to flash a smile while catching her breath.

"He was resting!" Serena desperately mentions, "It's not like he watched me change."

"Are you sure about that? Sounds pre-etty risky."

"I'm pretty sure...he doesn't seem to remember anything."

Shauna looks at Serena, "What do you you mean by 'remember?' Did you do something?"

Serena thinks back to that day, "Well, I remember putting on his shirt and jacket first. When I zipped it up, his eyes opened a little and I panicked and tossed my bra over his eyes."

"ARCEUS SERENA WHAT?"

"HE WAS STILL RESTING!!!" Serena continues to explain, "He didn't seem to react, so I took my bra back and put it away." Serena's laugh sounded a lot more nervous than before. She rubbed her neck as she watched Shauna try to process her story.

"Please don't tell me you wore his underwear too," Shauna's tone sounded more worried.

"No, no, I just put his pants on!~" Serena chuckled.

Shauna laughed with relief, "That really sounded daring. Honestly Serena, that somehow sounded more risky than Ash jumping into the volcano, I didn't know you had that in you.~" She laughed.

"Maybe, but can we keep this a secret?" Serena whispered closer to Shauna, "If Miette found out about this, she'd never let me live it down." She blushed.

Shauna looks over at Miette, still asleep in her seat.

"Yeah," Shauna giggles, "I promise!"

---

Author's Note (long one, final episode talk)

After seeing Episode 47 of XYZ, you have no idea how much I rewatched everything lol literally these past few days ever since the day the episode aired, I've been happily hitting that replay button lol. That's mainly the reason why I haven't been writing, honestly I was wondering how I can tie that episode into the book, but instead I just wrote a practice one-shot fanfiction of them in the future, it's pretty awful tbh

If you haven't seen Episode 47 yet, I won't spoil it for you, but just know if you're an Amourshipper, prepare to fangirl like crazy. Like me.

**Also, final note about the episode, Director Tetsuo Yajima tweeted about there being a secret message in the episode!

Some people already figured out what it was, the blurry white flowers outside of Ash's home that come into focus after he enters his house are called Baby Breath Flowers.

(Baby Breath Flowers symbolize "Gratitude" or "Eternal Love" and are commonly used during weddings.)

Director Yajima himself confirms that the flowers and what they mean are indeed the secret message left behind, confirming Amourshipping cannon! Don't let anyone else say it's not cannon, but also, please dont harass anyone who supports another ship!