"We're nearly there! It's just down this route, and we'll be able to see Vaniville town!"
Serena happily jogged down the familiar path to her hometown of Vaniville, followed by a casually moving Ash, Clemont and Bonnie. The Kalosian champion gazed around the route, admitting the cherry blossom trees, smiling at the amazing work of nature.
After Ash's victory at the Kalos league, he had been bombarded by the paparazzi and, what Bonnie liked to call, his "newly appointed fan-girls", a phrase which irritated Serena to no end, as she had to watch them all try and hug her boyfriend. To his credit though, Ash had handled it as professionally as one could expect from a teenage reigning Kalosian champion.
Now, the group was headed to Serena's hometown, to meet her mother, Grace, once again, this time, on more familiar soil. Serena hadn't been in her own home in nearly a year, and she was looking forward to eating in her own kitchen, and sleeping in her own bed. With the added bonus of sharing it with Ash, but that would happen when it happened.
As the group walked along the path, it became more and more familiar to Serena, occasionally pointing out areas where she used to play with friends, or hide from her mother when she was supposed to be doing Rhyhorn practice. To Ash, Clemont and Bonnie, it as all just about as foreign as the rest of the entire route.
"How much further is it?" An exhausted Clemont asked an enthusiastic Serena.
"Not much further! Maybe about another five minutes if you keep that pace up!" Serena called back from about 20 meters forward.
Clemont sighed and used placed his hands on his knees, using them to support his upper body, so he could catch his breath. Ash came up behind him and patted him on the back. "Come on, we're nearly there."
Clemont nodded. "Right."
The Kantoan and Lumious City siblings walked behind an excited Serena. Clemont brought up conversation with Ash. "So, what's the plan now?" He asked.
Ash bit him thumb and considered for a moment. "Take it easy in Vaniville town for a short while. Can't stay for too long though, everyone's waiting for me back in Pallet town, back in Kanto. So, I'll be here for a couple of days at the most before heading home, I guess. You guys want to tag along?"
Clemont and Bonnie agreed happily, excited to visit Ash's hometown. Ash smiled, happy he wouldn't be separated from his Kalosian friends quite yet. The Lumious twins assumed Ash had asked Serena already. He hadn't. In fact, he wanted to surprise her, by getting her a ticket to Kanto with him. He hadn't gotten the ticket by now, but he figured he would have plenty of time to do that while in Vaniville town.
"Come on! It's here! You can see Vaniville town!" Serena called back, happily looking out over her hometown. She never thought she would be so happy to see Vaniville town again in her entire life.
Ash, Clemont and Bonnie finally caught up to a waiting Serena, overlooking the town. The first thing Ash noticed about the town was that it hardly seemed like a town at all. More like a village. There weren't all that too many houses, and there weren't many prominent landmarks or buildings of note for tourists, however, it was still a beautiful and peaceful area, which reminded Ash of Pallet Town. He could see a playground, with a couple of young kids playing on the slide and a tyre swing, along with a friendly Bidoof that must have lived nearby. The buildings were simple detached houses, each of which would contain one family inside of them.
Serena stretched out and took a deep breath of air into her lungs, and then sighed it all out, sampling the air. She then put her hands on her hips and looked over her village, happily stating, "It's great to be back home!"
Ash smiled at her. He knew the feeling of being back home after a long journey. There was nothing quite like it.
Serena then grabbed a hold of Ash's hand, and began leading him into the town. "Come on, I'll show you all to my house! My mom is waiting for us!"
Ash had little difficulty noticing which of the houses belonged to Serena. To begin, it was the only house in the entire town with a huge bulking racing Rhyhorn in the garden, just casually nibbling on some Pokémon food. Second of all, it was the only house that had its own private training field for someone to practice Rhyhorn racing. Ash had thought that if someone had wanted to meet the famous Rhyhorn racer Grace, they wouldn't have much difficulty in deducing where she lived nowadays.
Still, Serena happily presented her home to her friends. "Here we are!"
Ash smiled at the building. 'So this is where Serena lives...'
Serena lead her group in the lands surrounding the house, whereupon she was happily, and lightly Tackled by a friendly Rhyhorn. Serena knelt down and hugged the Pokémon. "Hello, Rhyhorn! I've been gone a while, huh?"
Serena ran them through a brief introduction with each other. She introduced the Rhyhorn as the racer that Grace had used during her racing years, as well as the one responsible for all the cuts and bruises she had endured during her racing practice days. Rhyhorn had always understood that Serena hated practice, as she had told the Pokémon multiple times, and it had tried to make it as bearable as possible for the young girl, but had to balance that out with following its masters orders as well. Regardless, Serena and Rhyhorn had a fairly good relationship with one another.
The Rhyhorn seemed to take a liking to Serena's new group of friends, particularly Bonnie, who had refereed to it as cute, and Ash, whom Serena had introduced as her boyfriend.
'Well, at least the family Rhyhorn seems to like me.' Ash thought sarcastically in his head. He petted the Rhyhorn, which it seemed to respond happily to. Ash remembered everything Serena had taught him about Rhyhorn, and used that sub consciously here, so as not to freak out the Rhyhorn at all. The result meant the Rhyhorn had taken a liking to him, so Ash had to concede, for a second time, that Serena knew what she was doing when it came to Rhyhorn. Not that he ever doubted her, of course. His experience with Rhyhorn previously usually had ended up with him being trampled half to death.
Eventually, Rhyhorn decided that Serena needed to see her mother, and as such, went to go and rest in its hut.
The group followed Serena, whom opened the door, and went briskly inside the building. Acting as if she had been gone for a day at the Poké-Trainers school. She dumped her bag by the door, and slipped off her shoes. She encouraged her companions to do the same, and she went down the corridor, calling out, "Mom, we're here!"
Grace appeared in the doorway to one of the rooms. Upon seeing her daughter, she smiled wildly and warmly, grateful to see her daughter home, happy and healthy, unharmed and safe. "Serena!"
Serena tackled her mother with a hug of her own. "We're back home."
Grace hugged her daughter back. How long had it been since she had see her daughter? A few months, perhaps nine at the most. Regardless, she was happy to see her daughter. "Welcome home."
Serena separated from the hug, and presented her group. "You remember everyone, right? Ash, Clemont and Bonnie."
The group reintroduced themselves, albeit for Ash, nerve racking. He had met Grace before, and she had come across as slightly eccentric then, and he wasn't 100% sure she completely approved of him. He had met her, of course, and she seemed fine with him, but that being said, that was when the two of them were friends, not dating. Granted, he had seen an email of approval that Serena's mother had sent her daughter a few months ago, that Serena had shown him. But still...
Outwardly though, Grace didn't seem too interested in that exact detail right now. As of this moment, she was more preoccupied with her reunion with her daughter.
Grace glanced at Ash, seemingly noticing his apprehension. She smiled welcomingly at him. "It's good to see you again, Ash."
Ash smiled in response, nodding his head slightly, albeit his movements stiff. "Yeah, it's good to see you as well." Ash had never been one to be worried about formalities, and scarcely felt overwhelmed by people, but he did now. He supposed it was because Grace could, if she wanted to, take measures to stop him and Serena from seeing each other, technically. She didn't seem that way, but that idea was always present.
After a long conversation with Grace and his friends in Serena's living room, Ash sat on the steps outside the house, leading to the front porch of the house, with his bag to his right. Inside his bag was the trophy he won in the Kalos league. He took it out and looked at it, smiling at what he had achieved. He took out a duster and cleaned the trophy. It had been a week since he had won the Kalos league. He had gotten a lot of congratulations from back home, imploring him to return to Kanto as soon as he could. Everyone was still there, waiting to see him again, back at Professor Oaks lab.
Ash stopped cleaning the trophy, and held it in front of him, inspecting it. He grinned at it. He still couldn't believe he had won. It was unbelievable. The idea that he was the Kalosian champion was incomprehensible to him. He had even heard a few people calling him a 'Pokémon Master'. It was a dream come true. That being said, he had no intentions to stop traveling, to give up on his ultimate ambitions quite would travel more, see more places, and capture more Pokémon, battle more trainers, and ultimately, challenge more leagues, and maybe beat them too. Ash noticed a smudge on his trophy. He began to clean it with the duster, rubbing the smudge over and over again. He grinned. His journey had only just begun, as far as he was concerned.
He smiled at his trophy again. He owed this all to his Pokémon, who had stayed with him, and fought alongside him for years. And Serena. Without her, Ash knew this would be impossible. Serena had given him the strength to carry on, when he himself had nearly given up. He owed her everything. He kind of felt that she deserved this trophy more than he did.
He put the trophy back Into his bag, and glanced at the surrounding area of Vaniville landscape, admiring the countryside. He wanted to see more places like this. See more of what this world had to offer. Ash looked closer to home, and saw Serena, feeding the family's Rhyhorn, not a couple of meters away from him. Rhyhorn seemed to smuggle to Serena in affection, which made her smile and laugh. On top of her head, the family Fletchling, which Ash had been introduced to as "That pesky bird that wakes me up in the morning", made itself comfortable. Ash smiled. He wanted Serena to be there with him while he went through more of this wide world. He didn't want to leave her side for a moment.
Which was a problem.
Ash wanted her to return to Kanto with him. She had expressed interest in coming back to Kanto with Ash. He hadn't asked yet, but she had hinted she'd like to go with him. But there was one issue standing between that.
Money. Ash didn't have enough of it.
Tickets between Kanto and Kalos cost a lot of money. Money Ash didn't exactly have to pay for a ticket for Serena. The Kalos league and a cash prize in addition, of course, but Ash hadn't received it yet. They couldn't give it out to him up front after the league, because he would have 100% been mugged for it the minute he left the stadium. And the prize was to be delivered by the leagues representatives personally to Pallet Town, so that was out of the question.
And he couldn't exactly ask anyone for money either. The last thing he needed at his age was to start racking up a debt.
And it wasn't as simple as asking Serena to pay for herself. He wanted to surprise her. A surprise doesn't exactly work by asking someone to pay for their surprise for them.
Ash sighed. He was sunk. He didn't know exactly what he could do.
Serena's room was certainly plain in comparison to what Ash was expecting. That being said, it looked very expensive. The room was fairly spacey, and in the center of it, was a table. There was a small corridor near the window of the room that lead to a mirror, like an open walk - in closet. Her open wardrobes were full of clothes, and other fashionable accessories. On the window still, there were some pictures of Serena with people Ash didn't know. Presumably other childhood friends. Looking at one further, however, Ash realized it was one that they took when at Professor Oaks summer camp. There were, in fact, two of them. One was a photo of everyone at the camp that year, and the other was of the two of them together. Ash smiled. It certainly brought back memories.
Serena had switched into a casual attire that she wore when she was home, which was similar to her sleep wear. "You see the ones with us in them?" She asked, noticing Ash looking at her photographs.
Ash nodded. "Yeah, I see 'em. That was a while ago, huh?"
Serena rooted in her bag and nodded. "It was a long time ago." She found what she was looking for. The picture she and with Ash. In it, she had jumped onto his back without him being aware she was going to do so. She had hugged him and held up her fingers in a peace sign. Ash was laughing in both shock and surprise, looking up at her. She smiled. She kept rooting In her bag, pulling out more pictures, including the one they had taken when Korrina was traveling with them. She put most of them back, and kept a handful. She retrieved unused frames, and filled them with the pictures she had kept,mp lacing them on her window still. She smiled. "That's better, don't you think?"
Ash nodded, smiling, remembering when these photos had been taken. "I do."
Serena hugged Ash's arm. The way she hugged him, his arm brushed against her breast. "We should get some rest now. It's getting late."
Ash was still amazed that Grace had agreed to let them share a room. He had half expected to be sleeping on the floor downstairs. "Yeah." Was all he said.
Serena hugged him more enthusiastically. "Let me cuddle you~!"
Ash sat on the porch again, having borrowed Serena's tablet.
He scrolled down pages. He was looking for anything that paid. He was looking for work. To pay for Serena's ticket.
'Job vacancy in cafe. Waiter.' Ash almost laughed. The Kalos Champion working as a waiter in a cafe. Wouldn't that be a sight to behold? Ash imagined the Unova and Sinnoh Champions, Alder and Cynthia respectively, working as waiters. The image was hilariously absurd to Ash. It wasn't anything to do with pride, it just felt a bit funny to him that champions of leagues would just casually work in a cafe. So many incredible battles fought, then the trainers walking up to their customers table and asking their order. It was like seeing a movie star working in a coffee shop. The image was hilarious to Ash.
Then again, Ash wasn't exactly working with a lot. He wanted to get Serena a ticket to Kanto the very second he could. He wasn't really allowed the luxury of being picky.
At that moment, and envelope dropped onto the table, with such force the glasses on the table clinked. Ash looked up, to see Grace stood over him. She didn't say anything, but simply looked at the envelope.
"Uh..." Ash was both confused and concerned. "Are uh... Is something wrong?"
Grace nodded at the envelope. "Go ahead. Open it."
Ash hesitated, before reaching out for the envelope. Peeking inside it, his eyes widened. "What... Is this?"
"That's Serena's plane ticket. It takes off tomorrow. You, Clemont and Bonnie all have a ticket in there." Grace simply stated.
Ash held the tickets in his hands. All four of them, due to leave the Kalos region tomorrow. "What... What's... This for?"
Grace smiled at Ash. "You're uneasy around me. Understandable. I probably would be in your position. But Serena is my daughter, and my daughter loves you. She treats you better than she treats her family. I have never seen her so happy in my whole life, and I'm her mother. It says a lot about you." Grace put her hand around Ash's neck, pulling him into a headlock. "She's happy, so I support and approve of you both. Welcome to the family, Ash! Consider those my welcoming gift!"
Despite being unable to breathe correctly, Ash smiled. He never had a reason to be worried in the first place, after all. He pictured Serena's reaction when he showed her the tickets. He couldn't wait to see that smile. "Thanks, Grace." He managed to say in between his gulps of oxygen.