___

At around 6 A.M in the morning of Thursday, Ash opened his eyes. It was the first time in a while that he woke up this early, even before Bonnie.
Bonnie woke up really early, since she was always very energetic.

Still breathing deeply, Ash folded his legs and sat up on his bed, gravity threatening to pull him.

Clemont and Ash had left the blinds open of the room for some reason the last night. Ash could still see the gray sky from the glass window.
Wind greeted him as he opened the window, sprawling his hair everywhere. It was pretty cold and windy outside. Trees were swaying in the wind.
The sun was going to rise soon.

After kicking the bed multiple times hoping to wake Clemont up, he gave up and started to avert his eyes to Pikachu. He was sleeping soundly too.

He started thinking about what had happened yesterday - how he bumped into a girl at the Santalune bug Gym named Y/N and met a girl named Serena with a Fennikin.
He thought that it was pretty cool and awesome.

He was excited to meet their Pokèmon.

He was enjoying his solace and was leisurely looking at the sky. It had probably rained yesterday night.

~~

On the other hand, Y/N was awake all along and couldn't sleep at all that night. But as soon as she heard the rain hitting the ground and felt the wind entering the room, she suddenly felt comfortable as if a boulder was lifted off her chest and had three hours of sweet and sound sleep.

Her bones still felt really heavy and eyes really dull, but she decided to get up anyway. She kept staring at the ceiling thinking of today - how the three trainers were, what they thought of her, or would she ever get along.

The pokemon center was really near the woods and she could hear hooting of Pokèmon at night.
She felt like hugging her knees and curl up into a ball.
But she didn't - she looked at the positive side, and went off to the window. A single, solitary, and irregular purplish cloud was breezing through the sky.

So she decided to splash herself with cold water and got dressed in the usual. Pikachu's eyes seemed to flutter open.
She never thought she would travel with other people again after Bella and Kiara.

~~

Serena woke up smiling. The clock told her that it was 7 in the morning. Not knowing what the reason behind her happiness was, she slowly got up, as the smallest ray of sunshine entered her room.
Bonnie was sleeping soundly. But Serena still felt wide awake.

She glanced at the leaves trees outside her room covered with tiny splashes of water.
She changed to her outfit and set her favorite red hat on her head and decided to set out.

She walked heavily down the corridors. The receptionist, nurse Joy wasn't there yet. Outside the big glass door was a battle field, with trees at the Border with benches. She scanned around, and found Y/N sitting on one of the benches.

Not knowing where else to walk to, she headed straight to Y/N.
"Good morning, Serena!" She beamed. The sun hid in the clouds, and the sky was gray once more.

"The weather today is pretty gloomy, right?" Serena said.
"Yeah... it rained last night, didn't it?" She asked with a strange glint in her eyes.
Serena nodded, and sat beside Y/N, fiddling with her fingers.
"You'll... you'll be one of us from today onwards, Y/N," Serena said in a odd tone which made her head perk up.

"Hm?" She asked, mildly confused. Serena looked at her. "Yeah... you'll be one of us. I want to get to know you more."
Y/N laughed. "Is that so?" She asked.

"Yeah, you seem pretty mysterious to me."
Y/N laughed again.
"But you'll never know the secrets of Mystery girl, Serena~" She teased playfully, which caused Serena to break out a smile.

"Anyways. Did you sleep well last night?" Serena asked. "Hm? No, I kind of didn't. I kept thinking." She replied.
"Thinking? Of what?" Serena asked again.

"Geez. Are you a secret agent or something? Questioning everything?" Y/N laughed and raised her eyebrow.

"Hmph. I just wanted to know..." Serena pouted immediately.
"Relax, I was joking." She said and Serena stopped pouting.

"Hey, Y/N! Why don't you tell me more about yourself?" She asked.
"Me?" Y/N giggled. "Ah, if you look at it that way, I'm a really boring person."

"I don't think so." Serena said. "Well, about your past?"
Y/N looked at her.
"So, I was born in Viridian City. I have a sister named Callista, who's a fashion designer."

Serena's eyes lit up. "Fashion designer?" She exclaimed. "Must be amazing, shouldn't it?"

"I don't know," Y/N replied. "She looked quite stressed and uneasy when she was at home during her break."
"I bet you it was because she was away from work." Serena said, in Callie's defence.

"Must be that," Y/N said. "I didn't get to talk to her much because she was locked up in her room by herself the whole time. Says miss Harleen is too dependant on her. Honestly she wasn't like that before the workshop."

"Who's miss Harleen?" Asked Serena. "Her boss, I guess. I've never seen her before. Callie likes her too much though."

"Then I guess that she loves her work too much!" Serena chimed. Y/N nodded. "But Callie's not fun anymore." She giggled again.

At that moment silence fell. They both were staring at the ground for a long time as if an Onyx was going to make its way out.

The sunshine fell upon them and their faint shadows said hi to them.

"Ah, look, it's getting warm again!" Y/N exclaimed.
Serena sighed. "This feels so good!"
Y/N smiled a bit. She felt really awkward. She had no idea what to say next, she knew nothing about this girl. But she kind of wanted to know her more. She wanted know everyone more.

Just then after Ash, Bonnie and Clemont came out, all of them talked a bit which Y/N found relieving because she would get scared of silent conversation. She knew a little bit more about them - how Ash woke up late on the first day of his journey and met Professor Oak in his green pajamas, how Clemont dealt with being the leader of Lumiose City Gym, and much more.

"So let's get some breakfast? I'm getting a little hungry." Y/N said.
"Me too," Bonnie replied.
And they all sat on the picnic table sized hotel table again.

"How do you feel, Y/N? It's your first day with us." Ash said.
Y/N laughed. "Shaky, I guess?" She stopped for a second. "No, more like awkward."
"Why?" Clemont asked chuckling slightly.
"I've told you before," Y/N began. "I don't have much of an experience journeying with strangers."

"This is what no socialization does to a person." Serena said.
"But you're not awkward at all in my opinion." Ash suddenly said.

Y/N giggled. "I don't know what to say to that."

They ordered some roast bacon and scrambled eggs with some buttered bread and some ketchup for Pikachu.

"What does your Pikachu eat, Y/N?" Bonnie asked.
"Oh, her?" Y/N said, looking at her Pikachu who was sitting idly on the floor.
"Almost everything," She sighed. "Even my share."

"No, I think she means..." Ash said. "Ah... I get it! She mostly eats eggs and Pokèfood, sometimes pancakes, and of course, macarons!" She said, smiling at everyone.

"Ah~" Serena said. "My pokemon would never eat pancakes."

"Oh. I have something to tell you, Y/N... Serena makes delicious Pokèfood. She calls them Pokèpuffs. They're amazing, even I've eaten them once." Clemont revealed.

Serena shot him a nervous glare as Y/N turned her eyes towards her. "That's really great, Serena, I would like to try them too!"

"R-really? I have some in my bag, would you have them now?" She asked hopefully.
"Ah... sure."

Y/N fidgeted as Serena pulled out a box from her bag and handed her a white colored Pokèpuff.
She looked impressed, and all the white colored cream on the corners of her mouth was ignored.

"It was good, never eaten something like this before." She said. "Nice!"
"Thank you!" A flattered Serena said.

And when the breakfast arrived, Serena set the whole box in the middle of the table to let everyone including both the Pikachus to have them whenever they want. They ate together and chatted along. 

"Hey guys, I need to feed my Pokemon," Y/N said. "Sure," Ash replied. "I need to feed them too." Y/N got her Pokeballs out. Then all of her Pokemon came out one by one and everyone watched, Bonnie and Ash with sparkly eyes.
Fennikin, Chatot and Meloetta all came outside.

They all chimed about. Y/N's Pikachu played with all of them. Ash's Pikachu tried to join, but Chatot refused.
"Hey, what're you doing, Chatot?! C'mon, let him join." Y/N giggled.

"Ah... don't force them to like him or anything," Ash told her. "It's not like that, Chatot always has trust issues with new people," She said.
Like me.

~