As soon as Serena enters her apartment she drops her backpack on the floor, walks to her bedroom and plummets to her bed with a depressed sigh. Neither she or Ash said a thing to each other or even glanced at each other during the entire trip back home. Brock and Holly were surprisingly mature enough not to say a word during the entire trip and no one even bothered to say a friendly goodbye when they drop Serena off at her apartment first.

In her mind, Serena feels confused She was hoping this special time with Ash might give her some clarity about how she seems to be feeling with him right now with Palermo's offer to go to Sinnoh still in the air. At first,it seemed like things might start to become a little clearer after that moment in the hot tub, but after Brock and Holly locked them in her room with nothing but their swimsuits on and her single bed and even worse she argued with Ash for the first time makes her feel more lost than she ever was before. The image of seeing Ash look so angry and bitter at her while the two of them argue was a side of him she had never seen before and she silently prays she will never see again.

So now her boyfriend of over 5 years is still miles away, and her boss is pretty much demanding that she makes a decision on whether or not to leave Kalos as well, and now she feels a rift between herself in the one person she feels closest to with Calem gone. Nothing feels right for the snarky honey blonde woman anymore.

After about an hour of mentally moping about her troubles. She finally stands up and walks over to the kitchen for a glass of juice. She takes a brief sip of her drink quietly as she sits at the kitchen counter laying her head against her crossed elbows. She sits there and does nothing apart from taking a couple sips juice here and there until she suddenly catches her eye on the open airplane ticket to Kanto. She remembers that she can use any time and in the three months that Calem has been gone she still hasn't used it. With Palermo's deadline and her confusing thoughts of Ash on her mind, she considers that out of everything she's done to consider this possibility she hasn't gone to visit Calem.

After giving it more thought, she thinks maybe some time with her boyfriend that she misses so much might clear things up about Sinnoh and her shy, raven-haired friend. After a couple seconds of thinking, she takes out her phone, looks up the next flight, grabs her backpack, calls Lillie to tell her that she's going to Kanto and leaves her apartment to catch a taxi to take her to the Kalos Airport.

******************************************************************************************

After an 8-hour flight, Serena takes a cab to Cerulean City. By the time she makes it to where Calem's apartment building is, it's late at night and no one replies when she rings the bell to his apartment. With a pout, she sits on the tall stairway to the building and waits for Calem, figuring he's out somewhere.

After waiting for about half an hour, she hears the sound of a man and a woman laughing. She looks up to see Calem and a woman with brown eyes and short brown-hair walking towards the apartment building with their arms around their shoulders. The woman appears to have had a little too much to drink as she and Calem talk and laugh like drunk idiots. They make it to the staircase before Calem looks up and sees Serena sitting there and staring at him.

"Serena!" he says in alarm as he quickly let's go of the brown-haired woman. The woman panics as she suddenly loses her balance and comedically falls down the steps. Serena and Calem turn to her in alarm as they run over to her and carry her inside to Calem's apartment. Calem rushes over to the kitchen, finds an ice bag and gently puts on the brown-haired woman's forehead which is already swelling. Calem sighs before he turns to Serena who gives him a sad look.

"Bianca here is just a friend from the Johto side of the team," he quickly explains. "She lives in the apartment next door to me and we just went out for drinks with the rest of the team after work and I was just helping her home."

"Calem, I'm not accusing you of anything," Serena says.

Calem sighs in relief, thankful for her understanding.

"You don't have to worry about his loyalty, madame," Bianca says as she holds the ice bag on her forehead. "I'm not some Johtoian woman who kisses good looking, black-haired guys like an animal."

Serena chuckles a little before turning back to Calem.

"Babe, why didn't you tell me you were coming?" He asks.

"I wanted to surprise you," Serena answers before she speaks her seems and says a half-hearted, "surprise."

Calem gives her a small smile as Bianca stands up.

"Well, I'm going to bed and cover my ears with socks so I don't hear you two making out loudly," she jokes. "Nice meeting you, Serena."

"Yeah, you too, Bianca," Serena says as the Johtoian woman leaves. Calem runs his fingers through his hair and sighs before turning to his girlfriend.

"This is not how I envisioned welcoming you to Kanto," he says.

"How did you envision doing it?" Serena asks with a small smirk. "Did you intend to have a big parade with balloons and everything?"

Calem smiles warmly, amused with Serena's remark. He walks over to her, places his hands on her cheeks as stares at her lovingly.

"Welcome to Kanto," he says sweetly.

Serena gives him a small smile before Calem leans in for a kiss. Serena presses her lips against his, eager to give her all into the moment for the first time in three months. But before Calem wraps his arms around hers to deepen the kiss, Serena suddenly breaks it and looks away sadly.

"Are you alright?" Calem asks worriedly.

Serena doesn't say anything but lays her head against Calem's chest. In her mind, she realizes that something is wrong. She's been dreaming about kissing her boyfriend again ever since he got on the cab taking him to the Kalos Airport three months ago and that kiss they just had was perfectly executed. In her heart, she knew that Calem was giving his all to express how much he still loves her and how much he missed her. Nothing Calem did at that moment was out of place from any kiss they've ever had in the five, long years that the two of them have been together.

The problem was her.

Serena can't explain how or why, but despite the sincerity she put into pressing her lips against Calem's there was no spark in it. Any other time, she would feel something that would lead to her kissing him again and again, drowning in her love for her boyfriend. But instead, there was so little connection in her kiss that she feels more lost than she already was the moment she woke up next to Ash in the cabin.

"Serena?"

Serena snaps out of her daze and looks up to see Calem looking at her concerned.

"Calem..." she finally says softly. "I don't know what to do."

******************************************************************************************

The rest of the night, Serena and Calem sit down and she explains Palermo's proposition for her to go to Sinnoh and how she feels unsure about it. A part of her wanted to tell him about Brock and Holly's mischievous deed against her and Ash if for no other reason then to confess something to her boyfriend so that there still would be no secrets between the two of them. But she mentally rebukes the idea because it would lead to telling Calem the strange feelings that she has for Ash.

Calem listened to her intently like the good caring boyfriend that he is, but when she finally stop talking he didn't say anything. It was clear in his eyes that he doesn't even know what to say, but after a moment he just walks over to her and hugs her tightly hoping that would somehow make her feel better. Serena smiles sadly and lightly hugs him back, appreciative of the gesture, but deep down she knew in her heart that what Calem is trying to do is not working.

Eventually, they both went to sleep with Calum sleeping on the couch while Serena sleeps on his bed. The next morning, Calem leaves for work while Serena stays in his apartment. Before Calem left, however, he came up the idea that Serena should create a list of pros between going to Sinnoh and staying in Kalos. Serena smiles and agrees with her boyfriend's idea and so after she had breakfast, she takes out a sheet of paper as begins to write out the pros between Sinnoh and Kalos.

Sinnoh

More money

More control of the animation

Car

All expenses paid

Good for career

See new sights

Kalos

My old job

My life

My friends

Lillie

Ash

Serena frowns deeply after writing down Ash's name. She stares at his name as if her feelings for him will determine the decision of either Sinnoh or Kalos. She has no idea what she would even say to him the next time they speak to each other. In fact, no one but Lillie knows that she even decided to fly to Kanto. So, as far has Ash knows, she is still in Kalos in her apartment probably still feeling bitter towards him, Brock and Holly for what happened at the cabin.

"But am I still feeling bitter towards Ash?" She asks herself in her mind. "I mean I'm still peeved at Brock and Holly and I'm not pleased with the way Ash acted. But then again, I was the one who is acting angry first and called him a jackass. I probably hurt his feelings really badly when I accused him of being one. After all, he was still being nice to me despite the situation we were in. He was willing to let me sleep in the bed while he sleeps on the floor. Maybe if I hadn't argued against it he wouldn't have been so angry at me. But then again, why is it that out of everyone's feelings I'm afraid of hurting or seeing displeased with me in any way it's this one friend of mine who is a guy instead of anyone else including Calem?"

She growls angrily and she runs her fingers through her hair almost tempted to try to tear it out of her head. Ultimately, she decides to go out for a walk in the city and try to calm down. She walks for a couple hours and enjoys some of the sites, but after a while, she gets tired and finds a burger restaurant nearby and decides to go get lunch.

Inside the diner, a friendly waitress with short orange hair walks over to her table and greets her with a smile.

"Hi, welcome to the Sensational Sisters Diner. Can I get you started with anything?" She asks.

"Uh, just coffee right now," Serena answers plainly.

"Sure thing," the orange-haired waitress replies as she pours some coffee into the mug in front of Serena. "I'll give you a few minutes to look at the menu.

Serena merely gives a half-hearted nod as the waitress walks away. After a second, Serena takes a sip from her coffee and picks up the menu. Her eyes are mostly glued to the burger section, but then she turns the menu around just out of curiosity about the other options on the menu and her eyes catch the fried section. In the small section, one of the options reads three fried pickles on a small platter. Serena stares at this in disbelief and groans as it suddenly makes her think of when she first went out to dinner with Ash and he ordered fried pickles much to her disgust before they started talking about Fool's Gold. Eventually, the orange-haired waitress walks in and looks at her curiously.

"Is everything alright?" She asks.

"Yeah, it's fine," Serena lies.

The orange-haired waitress frowns and raises her eyebrows at Serena.

"It's the fried pickles, isn't it?" She asks.

Serena turns to the waitress surprised before she gives her an amused smirk.

"You say that like you get reactions like mine a lot with that so-called dish," she says.

"We sure do," the waitress replies with her own smirk. "People act disgusted with it right away thinking it's the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard in their lives until they decide to try it and tell their friends and family that it's actually not bad. Now it's become a regular in our restaurant and so is almost never ridiculed except for people who are new here. And I'm assuming you're not from around here, are you?"

Serena shrugs and says, "You got me. I'm from Kalos."

The waitress raises her eyebrows again in interest and says, "Kalos, huh? Interesting. I have an ex from high school who moved there a few years ago."

"Oh yeah?" Serena asks half-heartedly. "Was he one of your regulars who used to eat your fried pickles?"

"As a matter of fact, he was the one who gave me the idea," the waitress answers. "I was trying to think of unique things to cook and I encouraged him to help me even though he was very shy. I told him that the idea of deep frying food is that everything tastes better and that's when he suggested testing my claim with deep-frying pickles."

Serena scoffs and says, "That sounds like someone I know who said that when we went to a diner once and they had fried pickles."

"Well, you know what they say, don't knock it until you try it," the waitress says with a grin. "Tell you what. Why don't I get you a plate of fried pickles and if you don't like it, you can have anything else you'd like, on the house."

Serena hesitates, close to deciding to say no straight out because of her dislike for fried food, but then she considers the likelihood of hating the friend pickles and getting anything else she wants for free. And maybe her disgust for the dish will be so big that she'll be thinking about it for hours on end instead of Ash.

"You know what, lady? I accept your challenge," she says with a smirk. "One plate of those pickles and make it snappy."

"You got it," the orange-haired waitress says with a grin.

The waitress leaves to place the order, and Serena begins to sip her coffee again and looks at the menu, thinking about what she's going to get for free. Eventually, she feels her phone vibrating and she takes it out of her pocket to see a text from Calem.

Calem: Hey, babe. Me and Bianca were thinking of going drinking again with a friend of ours from the team. You wanna come? Maybe it could help you get your mind off things.

Serena hesitates for a few seconds before she shrugs and types her reply.

Serena: Yeah, I'm game.

Calem: Awesome. I'll pick you up around 8.

Serena: I'll be waiting.

By the time Serena sends the last message, the orange-haired waitress arrives with a plate of deep-fried pickles. Then she sits down and looks at Serena with anticipation, making the honey blonde woman raise her eyebrow.

"I want to see how you react to it," the waitress says.

Serena rolls her eyes before she stares at the pickles and takes a deep breath. Already, she feels her stomach turning at the smell of deep fry breading as she reluctantly picks up one of the pickles. She mentally prays she will still have an appetite left after this before she takes a bite. At first, she just chews quietly, then she begins to frown in annoyance.

"Crap," she says with her mouth full. "This isn't bad."

"Yes! Score one for the diner!" the waitress says happily as she shakes her fists in the air in victory.

"Oh rub it in," Serena rebukes as she takes another bite.

The orange-haired waitress merely giggles in amusement as she watches Serena continue eating her lunch.

"So this ex-boyfriend of yours," Serena begins as she takes another pickle. "How long did you two date?"

The orange-haired waitress' smile weakens into a sad one as she looks at the table with a sigh.

"Five years," she answers. "We started dating during the 8th grade, but we didn't really count that year because we didn't become serious until freshman year of high school. He pretty much was there to support me with my cooking while I supported him with wanting to become a doctor like his parents."

Serena frowns as the last part sounds similar to Ash. she shakes her head and asks another question.

"Why did you two break up?"

The waitress' frown deepens as she looks up to face Serena.

"We just did, I guess," she says. "He went to college out of region and I wanted to stay here and he decided that the long distance wouldn't work."

Serena's own frown deepens as she thinks about Calem taking the managing job without consulting her.

"Did you ever think about trying it just to be sure?" she asks.

"Absolutely," the waitress answers. "He was so special to me that I would have done anything to keep us together. But he shot it down just like that with his logic about how it's a bad idea. Admittingly, I'm over him for the most part, but I still wish I could find out how things could have been if we did give the long distance a good try."

"You probably would have been disappointed, either way, sister," Serena grumbles as she puts down the pickle she's eating and rest her head on her arm against the table. "Take it from someone who is visiting a boyfriend who is living several regions away from me just for his job. It's been three out of the six months that he's staying here and after all this time of wanting to hold and kiss him, nothing felt like it was before when I saw him again last night."

The waitress looks at Serena sadly and nods in understanding.

"That must be awful," she says.

"Yeah, but do you know what the worst thing is?" Serena asks. "I think I'm developing...something for this friend of mine back home. A guy."

The waitress' eyes widen and she gives Serena a concerned look.

"That's...troubling," she says. "What is it about this other guy that would make you feel that way compared to your own boyfriend?"

Serena doesn't say anything for a moment, but then she looks at the waitress dead in the eyes and confesses, "He's there for me. He listens to me, he makes me laugh, he was there to comfort me, sure he can be a wimp every now and then but it's kind of charming in an odd sort of way."

"And your boyfriend doesn't listen to you?" the waitress asks.

"Not enough to keep me from being bitter," Serena snarls. "You see, I thought we both knew that our jobs should never come before our relationship, that we would never try a long distance relationship and we would stick together and eventually get married and have only three kids if he's lucky enough to stop me from having more."

The waitress chuckles lightly at that last part before Serena continues.

"And then the day I let this guy from my job get a promotion that everyone says I deserve because it would have meant going to Sinnoh and be away from my boyfriend, he had the gall to accept an offer to be a regional manager here without even consulting me. He just assumed our relationship will be fine because we've been together five years already so it has to last just fine while he's here in Kanto for six months. Even this other guy with his bashful attitude and his abnormal views about romance was shocked that my boyfriend would do that to me. What's worse is that I couldn't say no because it is his dream job and I would have looked like a bad girlfriend if told him he can't go because he has to stay in Kalos with me. So for three months I have to swallow my pride a little and endure not having my boyfriend around and the only person who is capable of comforting me through it more than my friends or my sister is my best friend who is a guy and I think I'm getting these strange feelings for him and I don't know how to handle them."

Silence fills the area after Serena finishes her rant. She takes a deep breath as she looks at the orange-haired waitress apologetically.

"Sorry," she says. "I guess I've been building a lot of that up for a little too long."

"It's okay," the waitress says politely. "Clearly you needed it. There's nothing wrong with a woman letting out everything she feels rather than hiding it."

Serena scoffs and says, says, "I know, that's why I'm usually very snarky around people," with a smirk.

The two women chuckle and Serena sighs again, feeling a little better. Eventually, she goes back to eating her pickles until she has finished the last of them. She pats her belly, satisfied with the meal until the waitress speaks up.

"Do you want to hear my advice?" she asks.

Serena looks at her with a raised eyebrow and waves her hand as a way of saying, "go ahead."

"You need to tell your boyfriend how you feel about the long-distance straight out," the orange-haired waitress says bluntly. "It's clearly eating you up that you haven't told him how you felt and if you're not careful, he might assume that your relationship can handle the long distance whenever it has to in his eye. Your relationship can't survive if you're letting your feeling out to another guy rather than your boyfriend of all people. Trust me."

Serena looks down at her empty plate and nods in agreement.

"Yeah, I should," she admits. "Besides, what's the point of having a reputation for being snarky when I can't even handle my own tall figure of pure cuteness."

The orange-haired waitress laughs out loud at Serena's nickname for Calem.

"When you put it that way, he sounds like a dream," she chuckles. "I bet the other guy pales in comparison."

"Nah, he's pretty cute too," Serena says. "He has the same black hair and brown eyes like my boyfriend but he's shorter. My sister once described him as someone who would let you hold him in a body hug like a human-sized teddy bear when you two are watching TV on the couch."

The waitress makes a girly giggle.

"That sounds like my ex," she says. "What are the names of him and your boyfriend anyway?"

"My boyfriend's name is Calem," Serena answers. "And my guy friend's name is Ash."

Suddenly, the orange-haired waitresses' eyes widen in shock.

"Ash Ketchum?" she asks.

Serena looks at her surprised before it hits her.

"What did you say your name is, again?" she asks.

"I didn't," the waitress said.

Serena frowns suspiciously until she remembers her conversation about serious relationships with Ash at the bar at Lumiose City.

"You're Misty," she realizes.

Misty gives her a small smile and nods. Serena rubs her forehead as everything Misty said about her ex-boyfriend makes sense.

"I'm sorry," Misty says.

"Sorry for what?" Serena asks confused.

Misty sighs and looks at Serena seriously.

"Be careful with how you handle things with him," she says. "One wrong move and you'll lose more than just a friend."

Serena stares at her confused, but before she can ask anything else, Misty stands up.

"Meal's on the house," she says bluntly. "Thank you for coming in."

With that, the orange-haired waitress walks away before Serena could say a word, making the honey blonde woman fell even more lost than before.

***************************************************************************************

Later that night, after Serena want back to Calem's apartment, Calem came to pick take her out for drinks with Bianca and a Kanto native co-worker named Tracy. Calem, Bianca, and Tracy did most of the talking while Serena just sipped her beer until she gets an idea.

"Hey, are any of you interested in trying a little game?" she asks.

Calem, Bianca and Tracy turn to her, surprised to hear her speak so suddenly before Tracy says, "Sure, what kind of game?"

"It's this silly game I tried with a bunch of friends back in Kalos," Serena says. "Basically, you have to say where is the weirdest place you'd ever made out with someone."

The other three members of the groups look at each other uneasily, but they give Serena polite smiles as Calem says, "Sure, we can try that."

"Great," Serena says. "Who wants to go first?'

The group hesitates before Bianca says, "I would have to say out at the dock with a guy who was about to get on a boat. How about you, Tracy?"

Tracy chuckles nervously and says, "Off the top of my head, in my backyard with my high school girlfriend."

Serena frowns as none of those answers sound as interesting as the ones from back at the cabin with Holly, Brock, and Ash. Then she turns to Calem with a flirtatious look.

"How about it, tall figure of pure cuteness?' she asks. "Can you think of something from all our five years."

Calem scratches his head before he answers.

"How about that one makeout when we had that picnic at the park near Pomace Mountain?" he says.

Serena frowns and looks away from Calem with a pout, disappointed that he didn't go with the story about them making out at a ferris wheel. Bianca notices and decides to try to lighten the mood for her co-worker's girlfriend.

"So, you must be really proud of Calem," she says to Serena. "Has he told you how the negotiations are going?"

Serena turns to the Johtoian woman and bluntly says, "No."

"Oh he's killing it out there," Tracy says with a grin. "I've never seen someone handle discussions about copyright law like a boss."

This makes Serena smirk a little as she turns to a bashful Calem.

"Oh, has he?" she asks with a hint of pride in her voice.

"You better believe it," Bianca says. "The people from Unova are trying to force these over strict regulations on copyright law and he has been taking them down almost single-handedly."

"Oooo, now that's what I like to hear," Serena says, eyeing Calem with a kittenish look.

"Oh yeah. He has the whole negotiations in his hands," Tracy says.

"And we're so happy that he's able to stay for another six months," Bianca says cheerfully.

It this moment, Serena's face falls and her eye twitches violently. Calem becomes unsettled as Serena almost freezes into place. Bianca and Tracy have only a moment to realize that something is off about the honey blonde woman again before Serena stands up and angrily slaps Calem so hard on the face that he falls off his seat.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!" she screams before she storms out of the bar. She walks about a block away from the place before she hears Calem running up to her.

"Serena!" he calls out.

"Get away from me, Calem!" Serena barks bitterly.

"Look, I haven't' accepted the offer yet," Calem pleads. "Obviously, I was planning on talking to you about it first."

"Obviously?" Serena snaps as she turns to face Calem. "There's nothing obvious about you talking to me about it. You didn't even consult me about coming here while I'm all the way in Kalos in the first place!"

"Well, I thought you'd be happy for me and agreed we'd be okay for six months," Calem protests.

"Well, guess what, I'm not okay," Serena yells. "I never was okay with you abandoning me for six whole months. I only did it because it was your dream and I would look like a cow if I made you give it up just to stay with me. For that matter, did you even try to think about asking me first? Did you ever think for one freaking second to consider that you should ask your girlfriend before assuming I was going to be fine without you for six heaven-forsaken months?! And only now you are thinking of talking to me before accepting an offer to keep us apart even longer? What's the matter with you?! I mean you never even asked me to move here with you."

Calem looks at her dumbfounded and Serena just turns around and keeps walking away from him. Eventually, Calem catches up with her again and steps in front of her with an apologetic look.

"You're right, it was wrong of me to assume that," he says sincerely. "But I don't want to ask you to quit a job you love. I mean you never offered."

"You never asked," Serena counters.

"Well, then I'm asking you now," Calem says determinedly. "I mean there must be some great animation companies here, and maybe you'd enjoy it better over here."

"I couldn't do that to Palermo," Serena snarls. "She's been generous enough giving me this week to make my decision as it is and I could not turn my back on her in that way while she's in her dilemma."

Calem sighs in frustration and says, "Okay, so take the job. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. You'd be in Sinnoh, I'd be here and we can meet in the middle. Like when we have free time from both jobs, we can meet in Johto, Hoenn, Aloha - heck it could be a story we can tell our kids. Doesn't that sound romantic?"

"No," Serena says bluntly. "If anything, it sounds lonely."

Calem sighs again defeated and looks at his girlfriend with a pleasing look.

"Look, I'm just trying to make this work. Okay?" he says softly. "I mean don't you want to make this work? To make us work?"

Serena doesn't do anything but stare at Calem. In her mind, she can't deny the sincerity in Calem's eyes. She knows that he's really trying hard to work things out for their relationship. But no matter how serious or desperate her boyfriend is, Serena can't escape this feeling that she doesn't have a real answer for him.

Without a word, she walks away from Calem and doesn't look back.