A Journey's Link

Chapter 29 - Instinct

"Ash! Can I come with you?!"

Ash and Goh looked back with visible confusion and shock. Serena heard a small gasp behind her belonging to May, prompting her to feel slightly guilty as the words left her mouth. She looked at Ash, who had a blank expression on his face, and felt extremely embarrassed that she had even asked him such an absurd question in the first place.

Ash opened his mouth and was about to give an answer when May suddenly ran up to Serena and grabbed her arm. "What are you doing, Serena?" May whispered to her. "I mean, why do you want to go with them?" She looked at Serena with confused and curious eyes, expecting detailed reasoning.

"I..." Serena began, her voice trailing as she thought of a reason. "...don't know, honestly." May seemed disappointed by this answer, which Serena was convinced meant she was going to try to force Serena to come back to her. To her surprise, May smiled and shook her head, clearly acting very different from a few seconds ago.

"I get it," she said knowingly. "You do?" Serena asked in a confused voice. Well, of course, she does, Serena thought. I don't hide it very well. May nodded and said, "Yeah! You want to go back to Performing, right? Since they're going to Anistar City?" Serena knew that this wasn't the only reason, but quickly realized it was something she could do.

"Uh, Yeah! That's it," Serena quickly said, hoping that she wouldn't notice her hesitation as she confirmed her suspicions. "Contests are fun and all, but I think I'm ready to continue Performing again!" While she had lied about why she was going to Anistar City, this part of the reasoning was true.

Serena was glad she had gotten to experience Contests, especially with May, but she wasn't getting the same joy and happiness out of it that she had once gotten out of Performing. Maybe she desired to become Kalos Queen. Maybe it was the fact that Ash was always there to watch her Perform. Maybe it was simply a mixture of both. Whatever the reason, she knew in her heart that she was ready to start Performing again.

May suddenly hugged Serena tightly. "It was a whole lot of fun doing Contests with you," May said, her voice breaking slightly. "I hope you do well in your Performances." Serena returned the hug and also felt slightly sad, as she had so much fun with May in the time that she had traveled with her. "Thank you, May," she replied.

Ash and Goh had been quietly talking about taking Serena along with them. "Of course, we should!" Ash had instinctively answered. "She's a good friend of mine, so if she wants to come with us, she should!" Goh agreed with Ash, hoping that maybe spending more time with her would open Ash's eyes to how she felt about him.

Once Serena and May had released their hug, Ash walked over to the two and placed a hand on both of their shoulders. "We would be glad if you came along with us, Serena," Ash said smiling. "But what about Contests or your dream?" he continued, frowning at Serena. "You aren't giving up on it, are you?"

Serena noticed Ash's worried face and quickly cleared up any misconceptions. "No, no!" She quickly corrected. "I'm going to be doing Performances in Anistar City! That's where you're going, right?" Ash grinned and replied, "Of course! We'll make sure you participate in as many Performances as possible! Right, Goh?" He turned around and faced Goh as he said this, who was caught off guard by the sudden question and quickly nodded.

"Thanks, Ash," she softly said, gazing into his auburn eyes. May looked at Ash and said, "You better look out for Serena, got it?" Ash nodded and said, "Don't worry! We've traveled before, so we'll be okay!" Serena nodded at this and looked at May, saying goodbye to her one last time. "Goodbye May, thanks for everything," she said, speaking sincerely.

"Don't mention it," May replied, before suddenly forming a frown on her face. "But, all your stuff, it's still at the house. What do we do about that?" Serena suddenly froze as she remembered that most of her posters and equipment were at the house, so she began to have second thoughts about leaving to go with Ash.