Hi everyone!!  SK here.

Before I start, I just wanted to let you all know something.  You know how I always put a music video in the chapters??  Well, normally I don't really care if you listen or not, but there is a part in this chapter where the reading would make more sense if you listen to the music.  As always, there is a video at the beginning of the chapter, but the one that would be better to listen to is in the middle of the chapter (you'll know because it's the only video in the middle of the chapter).

Also, I just wanna give a HUGE thank-you to all my readers for a) reaching 100 votes, and b) ranking #17 in the Pokemon tag!!  Just.. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! 

Let's start the chapter now.  I hope you enjoy it!! :)

Ash

I watch as the cloud of smoke clears; to my absolute surprise, Pikachu appears to have fainted.  I just barely hear Brock announce that the winner is Heliux while I rush to Pikachu, trying to make sure that he's okay.  Thankfully, although he looks a little tired, he seems fine overall.

I hear footsteps and look up to see Heliux standing beside me.  "If you would allow me to, I can heal your Pikachu," he says with a faint touch of concern in his tone.

I nod, and carefully lift by buddy up off the ground towards the fairy.  Heliux raises his hands and a green-coloured aura emits from them; within a few seconds Pikachu jumps up happily onto my shoulder, fully healed.  "Thank you, Heliux," I tell him gratefully, while Pikachu thanks him as well in his own way.

Heliux gives me a slight smile.  "No problem.  I admit, that was quite a fine battle back there; not many have the skill or strategy that you have.  Your Pikachu is quite strong; you must have quite a strong bond with it," he remarks, giving Pikachu a little scratch behind his ears.  Pikachu lets out a sweet "Pika!" of pleasure, making me smile just a bit.

"Thank you for the battle," I say, thanking him yet again.  "Your Alakazam is pretty strong too."

Heliux nods, his expression made of stone.  "When you have all of eternity to train, that tends to happen."

I laugh a little, then proceeding to get tackled in a hug by Serena  How many times has she tackle-hugged me in the past day or so?  I don't know.  "That was amazing, Ash!" she exclaims.  "You've certainly come a long way."

"I-I don't know about that," I say with a stutter even though I have no idea why I'm stuttering.  "I still lost."

Serena lets go of me and shrugs.  "No one's been able to beat Heliux before," she says.  "But I think you're one of the closest fights he's had in a long time, right Heliux?"

"That is correct, Serena," Heliux affirms.

Serena gasps then speaks, her voice dripping with sarcasm.  "You- you didn't call me by my formal title!  Wow!  Sorry Ash, your birthday is great and all but this is the thing that calls for a celebration!"

I roll my eyes, and I can tell Heliux is trying to contain his smile.  "Well, that does not have to continue, Your Lightness."

Serena pouts, and I give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Well," she starts, sounding dramatically sad, "Even if Heliux won't call me by my actual name, I think it's about time we do lunch.  What do you say, Ash?"

"Lunch?  Oh yes, that sounds perfect," I agree, my stomach grumbling at the prospect of food.

Heliux stays behind to talk to Brock about something when me and Serena leave the Battle Arena to go eat.  There are a lot of fairies still dancing in the center area, and I'll admit that it's quite adorable watching the Mist Pokemon play around too; it reminds me of that dance party we went to so long ago, when Miette forced me to go with her.  Honestly, I'd understood that Serena had to go with Clemont to help her Eevee, but I was secretly hoping she'd ask me; at that time, I didn't know what it meant.

Oh, how foolish I was.

"Mallow's place will be busy, but I'm sure she'll make space for us," Serena is saying as I exit my thoughts.

"Actually... I'm sorry for asking, but if it's okay, can we eat in your room instead?  It's just... there'd be less people there," I ask shyly.  She probably has to stay here.  Why'd you ask that, Ash!?

"Why are you apologizing?  It's your birthday after all, we can do what you want.  If you'd feel more comfortable eating in my chambers, then let's go there," Serena says warmly.  "We have to go to Mallow's first to actually get the food though."

"Thanks, Serena," I say, feeling relieved.  I don't know what it is, but I guess the crowd of unfamiliar faces participating in unfamiliar traditions is a little much for me at the moment.  But I know Serena.  Serena is a constant that I have no intention of losing.

We quickly enter Mallow's makeshift restaurant, and Serena quickly finds a menu for us.  I figured that she already knows what she wants to eat because she immediately gives it to me to look through.  "The noodles sound good," I comment as I'm reading.  

"Noodles?  Okay, I can order for us," Serena says, skipping up to the counter.  She talks to Mallow and makes the order, afterwards walking back over to me.  "It'll be a couple minutes," she says.

"What did you order?" I ask her, curious.

She smiles.  "Same as you.  There's a special place in my heart for her noodles," she says with a dreamy sigh.  I feel a drop of sweat roll down my face.  We are talking about noodles, right?  Then again, I always get swept up with Serena's PokePuffs...

"Pikapi!" Pikachu squeals adorably, leaping from my shoulder to Serena's.  He nuzzles her cheek which create small sparks of static electricity.  

"Aww, long time no see Pikachu!" she says sweetly.  "Don't worry, I have a special treat for you to eat today."

Pikachu looks excited, and I wonder what Serena's 'special surprise' is.

"Hey, Serena, I have your stuff ready for you!" Mallow calls from behind the counter.  Serena and I walk over and the green-haired fairy passes us two locked containers, presumably with noodles inside them.  Their smell wafts up into the air, and boy does it smell good.

"Thank you, Mallow!" Serena thanks as we leave the establishment.

"Yes, thank you!" I call as I follow Serena out.  I hear Mallow's distant "You're welcome!" as Serena conjures a portal to her room.  When the two of us have entered the room she closes the portal and we sit down to eat.  I can still hear the distant music of the festivities below.  I'm about to open my container when I notice something.  "Hey, where did Sylveon go?"

Serena points to her Necklace.  "Resting," she tells me, then stands up.  "That reminds me- I have something for you, Pikachu!" she runs to her bed, reaches under it, then pulls out a box.  She walks back over to Pikachu and opens it, revealing a dozen freshly-made PokePuffs.  Pikachu definitely is excited, and starts eating them ravenously.

"Wow, Serena, when did you have a chance to make those?" I ask, intrigued.

She shrugs.  "While you were in the Battle Arena, I wanted to make a special treat for whichever Pokemon you brought with you."

I'm still confused.  "But, there's no oven...?"

Serena gestures to herself.  "Earth to Ash!  I have magic, remember?"

I give her an embarrassed smile.  "O-Oh, right."  I proceed to open up my box of noodles and eat them; luckily, Serena has forks with her.  I'd never tasted anything quite like them before; they... they are just so good.  They are sweet but not too sweet, combined with a small kick and big flavour.  

"Now you know why I like the noodles so much," Serena says while eating some of her own noodles.  I nod to acknowledge her and we both spend the next couple minutes in silence eating, the only sound being the munching of noodles.

"Wow... that was delicious," I say when I finish them all.  I rest the box down beside me and smile.  So good...

Serena grins back at me; she's still eating, but she appears to be almost finished.  "So, Ash, how are you enjoying things so far?"

"Everything's really fun!" I tell Serena enthusiastically.  "I especially liked watching the battles.  There's just one thing though..."

Serena finishes eating and put her own container down on the ground; she then looks at me with concern written all over her.  "What is it?"

"I feel really out of place," I admit.  "Everyone here knows each other and I don't.  I feel that it's going to be that way even after my Initiation too."

Serena comes over to me and sits directly beside me.  "I know how you feel," she says.  "Can I tell you something though?"

"Sure."

"I felt the same way after I came here for the first time," she admits with a sad smile on her face.

"What!?  Really?  But you always seem so natural with people, and everyone here seems to love you!" I say, shocked.

"It wasn't always that way," she says.  "When I came here, Aria had just died.  She'd only been the leader for a couple of weeks; her death was a sudden shock to everyone, and I guess the fairies weren't ready to move on to a new Leader yet.  So when I discovered that I was supposed to be the Leader, I panicked.  At the time, I knew no one else there; and it was already tense because, like I said, people missed Aria.  All throughout the time Heliux was training me, before I got my Necklace, I cried and cried because I didn't want the responsibility.  To be responsible for the Element of Creation is a big deal; all I wanted was to go back to you and the others."

I'm still in shock.  "Wow, Serena... I had no idea."

"I had to do my Initiation, and that was when I truly became Leader, I guess.  Heliux had greeted me and that was the first time he called me 'Your Lightness'.  I think he knew I was doubting myself and he wanted to reassure me that I was the Leader.  I still think he calls me that because of his constant need to be formal, but I know that that was the original reason why.  There was obviously a party afterwards, and Heliux suggested I show off my performance talents to gain the fairies' approval, and that's what I did," she says with a smile.  "The rest is history."

"Wow, Serena," I smile.  "So you're saying that if I just be myself, I'll be as loved as you are?"

"Well, maybe not as loved," she says teasingly, "but I think you'll come pretty close."

I laugh.  "Thanks."

She smiles at my laughter.  "Any time."

We keep talking, sharing stories and such, and I eventually loose track of time.  When he had finished his PokePuffs, Pikachu had come over and fell asleep in my lap, listening to our idle chatter.  I'll admit, it's amazing to be able to casually talk with Serena again.  I hadn't realized until this point how many stories I wanted to share with her, and I think she feels the same way.  Well, at least I think so.

"Hey, Serena, you had something you wanted to tell me this morning, right?" I ask suddenly.

"Oh- yes, that's right," she says.  "Okay... there's no easy way to say this, but- hey, what time is-" she lets out a gasp.  "Oh my goodness, we're late!"

I instantly stand up.  "Late?  For what?"

"The performance!" she tells me quickly.  "It must've started a while ago- ack!  I'm sorry Ash, I'm really sorry!" she quickly conjures up a portal and we both travel through it.  I make sure to put Pikachu back in his Pokeball though, much to his discontentment.  

"It's okay, Serena, we were both talking- woah."  We land on the ground, however this time we are directly near the stage.  I suddenly realized why the girls were hiding it from me yesterday; the decorations are beautiful.  Little fairy lights are hung over the audience, as are strings of lanterns.  However, they aren't ordinary lanterns; they are balls of ice and fire, with a tiny glow coming from within them.  It's clear that magic was used to create them, and I can't help but stare.  Wow.

I glance beside me to tell Serena my thoughts, but she appears to have vanished.  Huh.  Weird.

"Give a hand for Dawn and May!" someone announces, and I instinctively put my hands together for them.  I feel really guilty to have missed their performance.  They both bow and leave the stage, the early-evening sun shining down on it as a spotlight as they make their exit.  I hope we didn't miss the entire thing.

"Now, we have one more performance left to watch, the one you've all been waiting for!  Put your hands together for..."

"... Her Lightness, Miss Serena Yvonne!"

The crowd cheers, whistles, and roars as Serena walks on the stage with Sylveon.  I realize that she must have had to leave to get ready to perform.  She smiles and waves to the crowd, and it makes me understand why her first performance here really changed the fairies' opinions of her.  She has real talent- she made it to the Master Class Finals after all, and she became the Kalos Queen soon after!  She really does make people smile.

...you really make me smile, Serena.

"Music please," Serena says to the announcer, while Sylveon takes her position on the stage.  I try to get to the front, so I can see her better.  

https://youtu.be/AxUruPr0I3Y

As soon as the music starts, Serena turns backwards and conjures two glowing balls of magic in her hands, which have trails almost like comets.  The music starts slower, and I begin to wonder how music is even playing in the first place- probably magic.  Serena raises her hands, and all of a sudden sparkles are raining down from the air.  Sylveon uses Fairy Wind to blow the sparkles into the audience, and the music gains a peppy dance beat.

I feel sparkles raining down on me as Serena and Sylveon begin dancing to the beat, with Sylveon jumping up and using Swift a few times to add to the earlier comet effect.  Sylveon extends her ribbons to dance with Serena, and I'm filled with the nostalgia of watching Serena perform in Kalos.  I wonder what would happen next; I definitely didn't expect Serena to start singing.  Arceus her voice is beautiful.

"Come with us, come with us to a place you've never seen.  That is far, far away; it's the land of your dreams."

"You will see, you will see where the dragons fly.  And the beautiful Geisha sings so high!"

"La la la, it's a fairy tale.  She will swing her fan and dance the night away."

"She will climb so high to the Mt. Fuji sky.  And will sing her heart: 'Ah, where's my samurai?'"

I can't believe what I'm seeing: her beautiful voice combined with magic and Sylveon's moves makes for a beautiful performance.  The others appear to like it too.  Serena seems to look right at me in the next part, or maybe that's just me.

"Somewhere deep inside there's a place for you and me, where we can find our dream.  Somewhere deep inside you and me a Geisha sings and plays her melody."

Serena keeps dancing and I feel my heart flutter as her words reach me.  Honestly, the words describe our situation right now so beautifully that it makes her performance seem so, so much more than just a performance.  During the instrumental break, Sylveon jumps up and uses Moon Blast, which, combine with Serena's magic, produces a beautiful explosion of colours.  Before I know it, the lyrics starts up again.

"Follow us, follow us in this Geisha's dream we must.  Sing along with her dance and her melody and song."

"Hear her sing and dance in her kimono.  When her fingers are playing the harp and koto!"

"La la la, it's a fairy tale. She will swing her fan and dance the night away."

"She will climb so high to the Mt. Fuji sky. And will sing her heart: 'Ah, where's my samurai?'"

Right then, Serena uses her magic to create a small glow around her and Sylveon, together with Sylveon's Fairy Wind.

"Somewhere deep inside there's a place for you and me, where we can find our dream. Somewhere deep inside you and me a Geisha sings and plays her melody."

"La la la la la la la la, for you and me where we can find our dream!"

"La la la la la la la la, a Geisha sings and plays her melody!"

The music fades, and Serena lets out a big burst of magic.  Sylveon uses Fairy Wind to carry it out to the audience.  When the magic fades, everyone begins clapping and I feel myself clapping too.  She bows, and Sylveon did a little jump before she bows also.  I look around at the smiling faces of the fairies, and I even spot Heliux a little ways away, his eyes warm as he watches Serena on the stage.

She is about to walk off, but before I know what I'm doing, I call her name.  I feel my heart pounding in my chest as I rush towards the stage, and she bends down to be closer to me.

"What is it, Ash?" she asks, her face still alight from her performance.  

"Serena," I begin, knowing what I'm about to say is going to change our relationship.  Relax, you've wanted to do this since forever.  Don't be nervous.

"Y-Yes?" Serena asks, a light blush beginning to appear on her face.

"Serena..."

"... I think I love you."

Almost at once, everyone there goes dead silent, and I feel an incoming sense of dread.  Did I do something wrong?  I look at Serena, hoping for some reassurance, only to see her face is twisted with some emotion- my heart lurches when I realize it isn't happiness.

"A-Ash," she says, sounding pained, "why would you...!?"

"B-But," I say, trying to recover my act, "you do love me, r-right...?"

"I..." Serena takes a step away.  "I do but..."

My gaze hardens.  "This is about..." I gesture over to Heliux, who doesn't look pleased at what I've said.  Serena looks over, and she becomes visibly more upset.  

"Why would you think that!?" she says in outrage.  Except, I'm not sure if she's angry or sad, because she looks like she was about to cry.  She's about to cry because of me, Arceus no.  "Ash- this is what I wanted to tell you.  I... I'm not allowed..."

"... to be in love with someone." 

I don't know what happened just then, but it feels like my entire world is breaking around me.  I gave up my life and friends back in the real world so I can be with Serena, only to discover I can't love her.  

All this time I thought I had made the right choice.

And now I know I made the wrong one, and now everything is falling apart.

I don't even say anything; I just run.  I vaguely hear Serena calling me back, but I don't care at the moment.  I feel as broken as I was before I got here, maybe even more.  I stop in a patch of forest, feeling so broken that I can't even cry.  I'm glad I put Pikachu in his Pokeball, I don't want him to see me like this.

"Ash."

I turn, tension rolling off me like ocean waves, but it's only Alain.  "Happy birthday," he begins kindly.  "I see you remembered- wait, is something wrong?"

I don't need the word to get out, so I shake my head.  "No no, everything's fine."

He smiles, but there is something off about it I can't place.  "Well, if everything's fine, I suppose you still want to see the place I told you about yesterday?"

Because I have no intention of going back to the Lights' camp, I nod and let Alain lead me away.  I take one last glance at the Lights' forest, then follow Alain forwards.

Little did I know that would be the last time I saw that forest in a while.

Wow that was a long chapter, and I'm sorry for it being so late!!  I'll try to update on time, I promise.  But yeah, I hope you enjoyed it.  I hope you enjoyed Serena's performance too- that was the first time I wrote something like that (incorporating text with a song I mean).  

I really don't have much to say, so stay tuned for more!! :)