Ash's pov:

We were on the ferry, on the way to the aether paradise. It would take a long time to get there as we were traveling from the region of hoenn......

I decided to take a nap so I walked into a room filled with sofas and chairs but it was weird.......

Nobody was in there apart from my friends..........

I couldn't tell what their facial expressions were....... Was it anger? Was it disapointment? Maybe even sorrow.

My seaweed haired friend was the first to speak up:

"Ash." She said in, for once, a serious tone. "We've been thinking and well........ You didn't defeat the water trial soooo......"

"What mallow is trying to say ash is that you should just give up on your dream." Lana added.

I was so shocked hearing all of this......... I could speak. I thought they were my true friends......

This time kiawe spoke..... "Ash, you're just a failure if you can't even complete the island challenge...... Just like those team skull grunts......."

My eyes filled up with tears so I turned to Lillie, hopeful she would still believe me, like she always has.

She frowned, "I don't know why I ever believed in you ash. I just wasted my time!!! You should just go back to the region of kanto and never return. I don't ever want to see you agin Ash Ketchum." She finished in a nasty tone.

I couldn't believe it?!?!? What was happening??? Was I really not good enough????

Suddenly, pikachu cloned itself and then a thousand yellow pikachus were bouncing of the walls and then Lillie started morphing into a pikachu and then so did everyone else and then the betrayers appeared and then they started throwing pokeballs at the pikachus and then team rocket appears and so did gladdion and then Serena kissed me and then drew appeared and then— I woke up.

"Ahh" I yelled. "Oh it was just dream....." I said. I looked around me, I was sleeping in my bed on the ferry it was still dark. There was no hope going back to sleep so I got out of bed and went up to the top deck.

I just stood there.... Watching the sea.

.......

"Hi Ash, you couldn't sleep either?" A familiar voice whispered.

"Lillie! Nope I had a weird dream..."

"Oh I see."

"What about you?"

"Well... I guess I'm just nervous... You know.... With what that Riley girl told us..."

"Yes. I know what you mean... I'm sure everything is fine!"

"Hmm..."

There was silence for a few minutes, but not the awkward kind.

I looked at Lillie, her long, blonde hair glimmeres in the moonlight and her bright emerald eyes sparkled like......... A thousand...... Luminions....

I was so glad to have her as my best friend.

Lillie's pov:

I looked at ash his raven hair ruffled in the breeze...... I thought back to when ash called me his best friend. Why was I so frustrated at this.... Did I think we were more than friends? Did I want us to be more than friends....? Did I love Ash???? No of course I didn't.......

I decided to break the silence...

"We never interrogated Serena and Lana as to why they ditched us at the restaurant!!" I giggled.

"Haha no! ... You don't think they were trying to set us up on a date do you?" He asked jokingly.

"Errr..... No! Why would they do that?!?!?!" I said awkwardly.

"Hmm. Maybe you're right I dunno...."

I looked at him and smiled, he smiled back.

"I'm glad I met you Ash!"

"I'm glad I met you too, Lillie!!"

***

The next morning I decided it was time I spoke to Lana about the restaurant incident. We had a few more hours before we got to Aether - enought time I thought......

"Hey Lana!"

"Hi Lillie..."

"So I was going to ask you if you could tell me what happened at the restaurant—"

"IT WAS ALL MALLOW'S IDEA!!! I'M SORRY LILLIE - MALLOW FORCED US TO SET YOU AND ASH UP ON A DATE!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Oh... I see...." Ash was right..... Now I had to talk to mallow. Right on cue the seaweedette just walked into the room.

Normal pov:

"Hey guys wattssuppp???" Mallow asked.

"Mallow." Lillie said seriously.

"She knows!!" Lana whispered.

"Oh." Mallow replied. "Well let me explain......"

"There's no need to explain.... In fact I need to...... Thank you......."

"OMG!!! OMG!!!!!!" She cried. "YOU'RE IN LOVE WOTH HIM!! I KNEW IT!!!!!"

"Shhhh Mallow he might hear you. And no I don't love him I just......" Lillie awkwardly twisted her food around the floor. "Maybe like him a tiny bit." She winced waiting for the inevitable excitement from mallow.

"AHHHH!! YOU TWO WILL BE PERFECT TOGETHER!!!"

"Mallow!!" The blonde scolded. "It's not like he likes me back....."

"Of course he does!!!" The excitable green eyed female replied.

"He's just too dense to realise!!" Lana explained.

"Hmmm....I hope so........" The blonde whispered.

***

Ash's pov:

Finally we had arrived at the Aether paradise..... As we were about to walk in we were ambushed by several Aether employees......

They called out their Pokémon and started to battle me and pikachu......

But there were 12 of them......

........12 agaist 1 - THAT'S FAIR!!!!!!

Lille, Melon, Alan and Ricky joined in which made it easier..... But alas we were still losing.........

Pikachu was low on health and as one of their Pokémon was about to use one last attack........

"Need some help?" A familiar voice cried confidently.