A Journey's Link

Chapter 33 - Paired

"Four tickets for Anistar City, please!" Ash said, the first one to arrive at the airport. Behind him were the rest of the travelers, as Serena had given up on chasing after Ash so she decided to talk with Goh and Chloe on the way to the airport.

"...and that's why I decided to become a Performer," Serena explained as they entered, finishing telling her story of how she found Performing and pursuing it to Goh and Chloe. "That's awesome!" Chloe exclaimed, clearly in awe of Serena and her passion for performing.

As they saw Ash and waved, Serena asked Chloe, "So, what inspired you to do Performing?" Chloe began thinking as she processed the question. "Well, to be honest," she said, unable to properly find an answer to Serena's question. "I haven't found a lot of things in life that stand out to me, but this one does!" Her eyes began gleaming as she recalled the way Serena moved in her Performance.

Serena giggled at Chloe's enthusiasm and continued walking towards Ash with everyone else. "Guys! Guess what!" Ash exclaimed, turning towards his friends approaching him. "Turns out they've got food on the airplane!" Everyone looked at him in disbelief in silence until Goh spoke up. "Ash," he began explaining to the flabbergasted Ash. "The Pidgeot Airlines have always had food."

Serena walked forward and said, "I would've thought someone like you who loves food so much would've known this by now," winking towards Ash as she said this. Ash felt his eyes linger on Serena for an unusually long amount of time. I feel weird, Ash thought, his mind thinking back to the message Azelf had for him.

He shook off the feeling and exclaimed, "All this time I could've been eating delicious meals!" He groaned as everyone else laughed around him, loving the irony of the situation. Even as they began boarding the plane, everyone was poking fun at Ash's reaction to this revelation of his. Once they had gotten to the seats, however, a more pressing problem arose.

"Uh oh," Ash said, looking at his tickets. "Uh oh?" Goh asked. "What's wrong?" Ash sighed and looked back at the confused looks on his friend's faces. "I got four seats," he began, worried about continuing his explanation. "But they're on opposite ends of the plane..."

"What!" everyone but Ash yelled, staring in shock at Ash's actions. Goh sighed and said, "It's fine, we'll just have to find a partner to sit next to," smiling toward Chloe as he said this. "How about it, Chloe? You and I sit next to each other." Chloe smiled back at Goh and nodded, finding no issues with the arrangement.

Serena, however, suddenly became nervous at the prospect of sitting next to Ash for hours. Goh must've seen Serena's understanding of the situation and decided to rub it on further. "And Serena can sit next to Ash," he said sarcastically, causing Serena to freak out even harder.

Goh and Chloe sat down at the nearest two seats while Ash and Serena navigated towards the back of the plane to try to find their new ones. "I'm glad you found something you enjoy, Chloe," Goh said, striking up a conversation while the plane was preparing for takeoff. "I was worried you weren't gonna find something you loved to do."

Chloe smiled and responded, "I hope I end up liking Performing. The way Serena makes it look motivates me to be just like her!" Goh smiled at Chloe as she excitedly said this and thought, She's even looking happier.

"Sorry. Sorry!" Serena exclaimed as she made her way through the aisle and accidentally bumped into a few people. "I think we're almost there," Ash said, looking at the number on his ticket that indicated which seat to sit in. Serena sighed and kept up, hoping to find their seat soon.

Ash suddenly stopped, causing Serena to bump into him, and exclaimed, "Here! This is it!" Serena looked over and saw a row of two empty seats, realizing this is the row they would sit in for the next few hours, an amount of time that Serena was nervous to spend with Ash alone. Ash sat down and looked up at Serena. "The seat's not gonna hurt you," he said jokingly.