It was the morning after Christmas, and the sun was shining through the window into Serena's eyelids. She turned her body around before she opened her eyes and found that she was still in the living room, lying down on one of the couches while Fennekin was napping on the floor. Serenaremembered feeling tired during the party and Delia convinced her to stay for the night. Everyone hugged her good night before she laid down, with Delia putting a blanket on her. Serena stood up and stretched before she kneeled next to Fennekin and gently nudged it.

"Fennekin, wake up," she said.

The fox Pokemon slowly woke up before it got on all fours and yawned. It turned to Serena and smiled, saying, "Fennekin."

"Good morning to you too," Serena said. "I'm going to call a cab, and we're gonna head home before everyone else wakes up."

"Fennekin?" Fennekin asked.

"I think we've overstayed our welcome," Serena said. "I don't want to trouble them too much."

Fennekin thought for a second before it nodded in agreement, and Serena walked over to the kitchen to use the phone. After she made the call, Serena folded the blanket and put it on top of the couch. She then walked to the hallway with Fennekin and reached out to grab her coat and hat until she heard a voice.

"Serena."

Serena jumped in alarm and turned around to find Dawn coming down the stairs. The blunette woman was looking confused as she asked, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, uh, I have another morning shift at work today," Serena lied. "There's a cab coming to take us home before I head to the station."

"Aw, can't you stay for breakfast?" Dawn asked. "Mom will want you to try her apple cinnamon pancakes."

"Sounds delicious, but I'm cutting it close as it is," Serena claimed while putting on her hat and coat. "Maybe some other time."

Dawn pouted before she smiled and said, "Okay. Well, it was wonderful for you to join us last night."

"Yeah, we had a great time too, didn't we, Fennekin?" Serena said, smiling back.

"Fennekin," Fennekin said.

"Well, I hope we'll see you whenever we visit Calem at the hospital," Dawn said.

"I hope so too," Serena said as she reached for the doorknob. "Anyway, we better go outside for our -"

But as she opened the door and turned her head to leave, she found herself inches away from a pair of brown eyes. She took a step back to clearly see the face of a man with raven hair, z-marks on his cheeks, and a Pikachu standing on his left shoulder. The raven-haired man looked at her, confused while she smiled awkwardly.

"Hi," she said. "You must be Ash."

"Yeah, that's right," Ash said. "Who are you?"

Before Serena could answer, Dawn shouted, "Ash," and rushed over to hug him. Ash hugged his sister back before Dawn broke the hug to pick the Pikachu off of Ash's shoulder and started petting. The little mouse Pokemon squealed in delight while Ash turned back to Serena.

"Dawn, who is this?" He asked.

"This is Serena. She's Calem's fiancee," Dawn answered.

Ash looked at Dawn as if she said something funny, and his Pikachu tilted its head.

"What? Calem doesn't have a fiancee," Ash said.

"Yeah, he does. She's right here, silly," Dawn said, pointing at Serena. "Didn't mom tell you that?"

"No, mom hasn't called me since she told me about Calem's accident," Ash said before turning to his Pikachu. "Looks like we've missed out on a few things, buddy."

"Pikachu," Pikachu agreed.

"You sure have," Dawn said. "We had a wonderful time spending Christmas with her last night. She and her Fennekin even have their own family sweaters."

Ash turned back to Serena and then to Fennekin to see their new sweaters, and Serena covered her sweater with her coat, uncomfortable with how Dawn was advertising her. Luckily, before Dawn could say anything else, Serena heard a car honking from outside, and she looked through the door window to see a cab in the middle of the road.

"Thank you," she whispered before she turned to Ash, Dawn, and Pikachu. "That's our cab. We better get going."

"Alright, catch you later," Dawn said.

"Yeah, catch you later," Serena said. "Nice meeting you, Ash."

Serena opened the door, letting Fennekin go out before her. She took a step out the door until she felt someone's hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head to find Ash standing close to her.

"Hey, Serena," He said.

"What, Ash?" Serena asked.

Ash paused for a moment, struggling with what to say before he shrugged and said with a friendly smile, "Welcome to the family."

Serena stood still for a moment before she smiled back and said, "Thank you." Ash removed his hand from Serena's shoulder, and she finally exited the house and got on the cab with Fennekin. Dawn handed Pikachu back to Ash before she went outside and waved goodbye with her whole arm as the cab drove away into the city. Ash and Pikachu looked at Dawn in confusion as she went back inside with a cheerful smile.

"Wow, you really like Serena, huh?" Ash asked.

"Everyone does," Dawn said. "You really missed out, Ash. She's really nice and makes delicious sweets. I can't believe Calem is engaged to her."

"Me neither," Ash said. "How come Pikachu and I haven't heard of her before?"

"We didn't know either until we saw her in Calem's room at the hospital," Dawn said. "I don't know about you, but I have some things to say to our brother about keeping her a secret from us."

"Not before I tell him a couple of things myself, Dawn."

Ash, Dawn, and Pikachu looked up to see Delia walking down the stairs, wearing a thistle bathrobe and slippers. Pikachu smiled brightly and jumped off of Ash's arms and landed on Delia's.

"Hi, Pikachu. Did you miss me?" Delia asked.

"Cha!" Pikachu squeaked as Delia pet it behind the ears.

"Hi, mom. Merry late Christmas," Ash said.

"Merry late Christmas to you too, sweetie," Delia said while wrapping an arm around her son and kissing his forehead before turning to Dawn. "Is Serena up yet?"

"Actually, she and Fennekin just left," Dawn answered.

"What? They left?" Delia asked.

"Yeah, Serena has work again, so they needed to head home," Dawn said.

"Oh, that girl. She does work a lot like Calem, doesn't she?" Delia said. "They must be made for each other."

Ash frowned and said, "Okay, seriously, who is Serena?"

Delia and Dawn gave the raven-haired man amused looks, and the former said, "She's your brother's fiancee."

"Yeah, I told you that before she left, Mr. Forget-o," Dawn said.

"But why am I learning this now?" Ash asked. "With Calem's job at the firm, you'd think that we would find out that he's engaged in the tabloids or something."

"Maybe we would have if he was engaged to Miette, heaven forbid, but with a sweet girl like Serena, I think your brother knew better than to make it public," Delia said.

"She is kinda timid sometimes," Dawn agreed.

"Okay, but how did you find out that they're engaged?" Ash asked.

"How about we tell you while I make breakfast," Delia suggested. "I'm making pancakes."

Ash smiled brightly like a child and said, "Sounds great. It's been way too long since I've had your pancakes, Mom."

Delia giggled with her mouth closed at her son's sudden change of demeanor before looking down at Pikachu, who was still in her arms.

"And, I'll make sure to put a lot of ketchup on your Pokemon food, Pikachu," she said.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu cheered.

The four of them walked to the kitchen, where Delia put Pikachu down on top of the dinner table, and Ash and Dawn sat down around it. As Delia heated up a pan and started making pancake pix, she and Dawn filled Ash and Pikachu in on everything that happened between when the family first went to see Calem at the hospital to the Christmas party. The raven-haired man and his partner were amazed by Serena saving Calem and how everyone enjoyed having her at the party, but the former was still skeptical.

"Wow, Serena sounds amazing," he said. "But seriously, how come you only learned about her the other day? She seems like someone Calem would have brought up long before they got engaged."

"I know! That's what I'm dying to find out," Dawn said. "Calem wouldn't shut up about Miette, but he'd keep Serena a secret? What's up with that?"

"Calem will have a lot of explaining to do when he wakes up," Delia agreed. "But I'd like to think the two of them had their reasons."

"Well, we should ask the next time we see her," Ash said.

"I'm down for that," Dawn said. "We should invite her for when we next go visit Calem so you can spend time with her, Ash. We have her address, so you could come over and invite her."

"Oh, yes. We should absolutely do that," Delia said as she mixed the ingredients together. "I'm sure Serena will be happy to get to know you more, Ash."

"Well, Pikachu and I are hoping we won't have any business trips for a while, so we'll try to catch up with you guys while we wait for Calem to wake up," Ash said.

"Pikachu," Pikachu said.

"I'm happy to hear that, dear," Delia said. "Speaking of business trips, did you get the Flaversham Estate?"

"Yes, mom, I got the estate," Ash said.

"Good. What about the Pierre Estate?"

"Yep. Got that too," Ash replied with a toothy grin.

"And the Rosenwinkel Estate?"

"Got it."

"The Mendez Estate?"

"Got it."

"Whitmore?"

"Done."

"Sinclair?"

"Taken care of."

"What about the Hunt Estate?"

Ash flinched, and he and Pikachu gave each other uneasy looks. Ash looked away from his mother as if he got a bad report card from school and said, "I couldn't get that one."

Delia stopped mixing and turned to her son with a stern look.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Getting the Sinclair Estate took a while, and there was some road trouble between Anistar City and Snowbelle City," Ash explained.

Delia put her hands on her hips and asked, "What kind of road trouble?"

"There was...a blizzard halfway there that made it too dangerous to drive," Ash said.

"A blizzard?" Delia asked with a suspicious look. "Ash Kazuhiko Ketchum, when are you going to stop slacking off?"

"I wasn't slacking off," Ash claimed. "I got the rest of them."

"Yes, but the Hunt Estate was the biggest one," Delia said. "This makes four major estates you messed up on in the past few months."

"Come on, Mom, you can't expect me to get everything," Ash protested. "You, Dad, and Calem have lost clients in the past."

"Not this frequently," Delia said. "The next time I ask you to get all of the estates, I expect you to do it. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Mom," Ash said with his head hung low.

"Good," Delia said before turning around and going back to working on breakfast.

Ash sighed and rested his head with his arm, while Dawn and Pikachu gave each other concerned looks. The blunette woman glanced at her mom before moving her chair next to Ash and leaned into his ear.

"You gotta tell her soon, Ash," she whispered. "She clearly knows that you're lying this time."

"I know," Ash whispered back. "I just need to find a good time."

"There's never going to be a good time if you keep this up," Dawn said.

"Yeah, but it obviously can't be now when she's upset," Ash said.

Dawn sighed in disappointment and said, "Well, maybe you can try the next time we see Serena. She's been keeping Mom in high spirits ever since we met her."

"I'll hold you to that," Ash said. "Especially since I'm going to register for the league."

Dawn's eyes widened, and she turned to their mother again, who started pouring the mix into the pan before she turned back to her brother and asked, "You mean you got them?"

Ash and Pikachu smirked before the former opened his jacket and took out two gym badges from his inside pocket. Dawn whispered, "Yes," before the two siblings quietly high-fived each other.

"I knew you could do it," Dawn whispered.

"Yeah, it was tough, but I got them all," Ash said. "Plus, a certain blue friend evolved along the way."

"That's awesome," Dawn whispered. "How are you feeling about competing?"

"Excited and nervous," Ash said. "Hopefully, I'll make it all the way to the top."

"Pikachu," Pikachu whispered in agreement.

"I'm sure you will. You just need to keep training whenever you get the chance," Dawn said. "And make sure you tell Mom before -"

"What are you two whispering about?"

Ash, Dawn, and Pikachu jumped and turned to Delia, who was holding a plate of pancakes. The two siblings looked at each other before Ash said with a forced grin, "N-nothing. Just sibling talk."

"Yeah, just sibling talk," Dawn said with her own fake grin.

Delia looked at her grown children suspiciously before she decided to drop it and said, "Alright then. Breakfast is ready, so come and get your plates."

"Yes, Mom," Ash and Dawn said simultaneously.

The two young adults got off their seats and grabbed plates from the cupboard while Delia put the plate of pancakes on the center of the table. She then filled a bowl full of Pokemon food and decorated it with ketchup before placing it in front of Pikachu. The four of them took a moment to say grace before they began eating breakfast. As Ash ate his pancakes, he glanced at his mother and frowned as his mind went back to what he wanted to tell Delia, but then he thought about Serena and wondered whether or not she really was engaged to Calem.