Her room was so cold she feared it might've been a grave.
Serena was up half the night, she was afraid that if she fell asleep she might freeze to death or worse wake up with a frost bite.
She paced around her small room, tried to jump up and down to create some sort of warmth in her body but nothing worked.
She couldn't help but miss braixen and her warm snuggles. The softness of her fur and the fire in her eyes.
On the bright side, she though, if I suffer from a frost bite, I'll be excused from this place.
She seriously considered the latter.
Just then there was a knock on the door, she expected to see Dawn or even better, Ash but it was Gary who came in, his eye was still tinted lilac from the punch she'd given him.
"It's you," she vexed, her teeth's clattered.
"Yeah," he quickly sat down on the bed right next to her, "I think the temperature regulator in my room is broken and so is the one in Ash's and... yours."
He shivered beside her, Serena wanted to kick him out of her bed but she didn't have enough strength too.
"Well then go on," she said, "it's freezing here!"
"It's freezing everywhere!" He cried, "but the others don't feel it, Ash kicked me out and said I had a low tolerance for cold."
"Do you?"
He glared at her, "What do you think?!"
Serena sighed as she tried to pulled her blanket closer to her but Gary kept trying to steal it. "It's mine!" She said.
"I don't see no name on it!" He cried.
"This is my room Gary!" She said, "go to yours!"
"It's freezing there!"
"And it's freezing here!"
They'd reached an impasse, in the end they decided to share the blanket.
"Should be go trouble Dawn?" He suggested.
"No she needs her beauty sleep."
"And you don't?"
She shook her head, she'd parted ways with sleeps ages ago. In fact the best sleep she'd had in years was when she'd she snuggled with Ash in the hospital bed before they were rudely woken up by Ailsa Oak.
They shivered in silence for quite sometime.
"My... grandfather says that Oak men are useless in cold." Gary smiled.
"Is that so?"
He nodded, "When I was little, he used to say that my dad bruised like a berry. Grandpa even wears sweater vests in July."
Serena laughed, "What about your sister, do you have any?"
He shook his head, "There hasn't been a girl in our lineage since ages, my uncle said that the Oaks are cursed and if there is a woman she'll suffer a great deal, bunch of idiots."
"Well, at least you know your family." She said bitterly, "I don't have a family except my mother."
"What about your father?"
"Dead," she sighed.
Mark Jorum used to be a wonderful father. Serena was young when he left them but she had enough memories to prove the said. They used to go camping, to the park, the lumious tower and to many more locations. It had broken her heart when he'd left, but there wasn't anything he could've done different.
Her mother was awful to him, she was difficult to live with. Perhaps if she was a little bit pleasant, he wouldn't have left and rejoined the Consortium, perhaps he would still be alive.
She blamed her mother for the death of her father, she didn't express it enough but she did.
"I know how you feel." He sighed. "My parents died when I was young too."
"Your dads still alive," she raised her eyebrows.
Gary shook his head, "He's not my dad, my dad died with my mom. He's just... he's my grandfathers son. He ain't my dad."
Serena bit her lip in frustration. Her father was dead and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do if it could bring him back. And here was Gary, who's father was still alive but he refused to acknowledge.
"You can't disown him," she said firmly, "he's still your father. Just because he did one terrible thing, it doesn't make him a bad person."
Gary brought the blanket closer to his chin. He turned around to take a look at her, a wicked smile was spread on his face. "You know, I always wanted a sister—"
Serena didn't like where he was going.
"—if you marry Ash, you'll be my in law!"
Serena sighed as she brought her fist out, "The hell you'll be!" She screamed while hitting him.
"It's called wishful thinking, sister!" He said inbetween laughs.
They were taught many special skills at the academy over a span of less than three months. Flying was one of them. It was the only one Serena enjoyed.
"I'll pilot the fighter," she said when Ash was assigning them various duties, "I thrive at flying."
"No it's okay, I'll do it," he refused to look her in the eye, "the pattern is already installed in the drive so it wouldn't be a problem."
Serena frowned as she looked towards the fighter, it was smaller than a charter plane and much much faster. It had the flight strength of a Dragonite and the agility of a Sceptile. It was Love at first sight.
Ash traveled straight to the cockpit and strapped on the seat belt. Serena glared at him with jealous eyes as he put on the microphone.
"Did you two break up?" Said Calem as he sat next to her, bumping Dawn away who looked at him with murderous eyes.
"What?" Repeated Serena.
"You and... captain over there," he pointed towards Ash, "you two break up?"
"We were never together," she said grumpily.
"But Ailsa said—"
"I know what Ailsa said!" She snapped, "we were never together."
As bitter as those words sounded, they were true. They were never together, all they were and are was a couple of friends.
"Oh, so a one night stand?"
Serena facepalmed herself. "I just fell asleep." She grabbed the edge of her seat as the plane took off, "put on a harness, Calem."
He arrogantly shook his head. "Don't need it... so let me get this straight, you fell asleep next to him and he didn't make a move? What is he gay?"
He laughed.
Serena couldn't help but smile. However, Ash did make a move that night or atleast that's what she thought. She had difficulty differentiating between the truth and wishful thinking.
If it was her wishful thinking, she had no complains after all it wouldn't be the first time she'd imagined something like that. Serena was an accomplished woman with a number of titles and awards under her belt.
But whenever she was around Ash, she was the same thirteen year old girl madly in love with her best friend, blushing at the sight of him.
She'd battled with her feeling for years, she wouldn't mind a few more.
But if Ash was leaning in to kiss her, she was screwed. After all those years did he finally have feelings for her or was it a moment of weakness? If he did, what were they supposed to do?
Her mind was clouded by all of these questions when Calem interjected. "So the bottom line is that you two aren't dating?"
She shook her head.
"Well then!" A smile crept up on his face, "my consciousness is clear!"
She frowned, "For what?"
"For this," he leaned in closer and closer until their noses touched, Serena closed her eyes expecting his lips to touch on hers but it never came.
The plane twirled around in the atmosphere throwing Calem away from her, he rolled around in the alley as the plane shook with turbulence.
"Calem!" She cried with worry, "are you okay?"
He had landed right next to Gary who was currently helping him up.
"What... what the hells wrong with you Ash!" He cried as blood dripped down his forehead.
Ash didn't look back, "Sorry, ran into a heard of spearows."
"There... there aren't any spearows north of Hald Fest!"
"Well, what can I say?" He turned back and faced Serena, "you should've worn your seatbelt."
She shook her head as Ash winked at her, her dilemma was quite clear now.
He was leaning in for a kiss the other day.