Singer in Plain Sight

Chapter 9

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" screamed a group of people.

The holiday celebration has begun, with all of Ash's past traveling partners celebrating the event. They were all in Ash's house, with the location being Gary's option. As Ash was not the type of person to go out of his way to create such events.

Ash is the type to hype up and make the event enjoyable and lively. But in this case, he was stressing with him literally sweating a waterfall. Most people noticed this but he quickly made the excuse that he was feeling hot. His point was that there were a lot of people making the area less humid.

His explanation was passable so they allowed Ash some breathing space. Immediately his mind raced with multiple ideas to get himself out of this one. He already had a stroke of horrible luck, with Serena just guessing that he was Satoshi.

And the fact the people were singing his songs did not help one bit. But Serena was there to allow him to relax his nerves. 

'Oh, Arceus please allow me to survive this one,' Ash thought.

'Nope, you're on your own chief!' a response was given in his head.

'Welp, at least I tried,' he thought as he gave a sigh making Serena confused.

Ash was in his thoughts for a while thinking of multiple ideas. After a while, he took a sip of a drink of eggnog. It had a funny taste as Ash felt a small burn in his throat. This was enough to snap Ash back to reality.

Looking at his cup and back at the nog, he was confused by this. The drink was brought by Cilan who said that it was safe to drink. As regular eggnog had alcoholic properties in it. Staring into his drink, Ash felt all the stress creeping up.

And in a final decision with the happy atmosphere, all he said was a great quote.

"You know what, screw it," as he downed the drink in an instant making everyone look at Ash.

Immediately the drink went into effect, and Ash's face started to flare into a bright red. Serena has a look of concern, as most should with a drunk friend. Ash started to have a sort of sleepy face, with his eyes closing and opening irregularly.

And without any warning, he slept soundly on the table making a loud thud. People didn't really have any concerns as Ash was quite hard-headed. I mean fighting and running into dangerous situations definitely have their perks.

It was during this time that most of the group needed to leave to rest up for their flight back home. Serena looked around in hope of helping with the problem of Ash being drunk. However, most of the group had plans.

Before Serena knew anything, she was left alone with a drunk Ash. Feeling the empty atmosphere, Serena sighed as she pulled Ash onto the couch. However, with some horrible luck and positioning, Ash was on Serena's lap.

The situation was still quiet but Serena's mind was not.

'What the hell am I doing!!!!' 

Serena while she was able to be confident with Ash with her slightly flirty personality. She was still her shy self inside, with constant blushing and internal screaming. But snapping back to reality she stared at her boyfriend on her lap.

As if this situation was not bad enough, Ash suddenly moved as he rotated facing Serena. He was still asleep which was thankful for Serena. 

'That surprised me...'

Looking at Ash she found him especially cute as he was wearing some cat ears. Which was something Bonnie and Mairin wanted him to wear. 

"Cute..." she said as she scratched his head.

"ngh..."

Serena hears this and found Ash's eyes opening up, with a droopy face. His face was still bright like a tomato, which really makes you think about what was in that eggnog.

"Ash! Your awake,"

Serena was slightly in delight as this was a bit too much for her. However remembering that Ash is drunk, she went into full hospitality.

"Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Right! I should get you some water!"

"I'll be back in a bit,"

She said as she wanted to allow Ash to fully rest on the couch. But before Serena could leave, she felt Ash's hand cupping her face. Serena was confused about this sudden action but she could hear Ash say something.

"mistle...toe..." he said as Serena had the plant in her hair.

"Ash? Did you say someth-" 

Before she could finish her question, Ash pulled Serena into a kiss. This was quite sudden and shocking and Serena's face turned brighter than Rudolf's nose. Maybe it was the alcohol in the smooch but Serena knew it was different.

 The two were in that position for a while, until Ash slowly drew his lips away from Serena's. She was left in a daze as she was confused and embarrassed about the rapid event. But this would not be the last. 

Now Ash was sitting upright, getting up from Serena's lap. Which made her concerned as it was quite fast for him to try to move after a drink. 

"A..Ash wait! You're not supposed to sit up so quickly! Y...you should rest and... well uh" Serna trailed off as she was still dazed by the kiss.

"..." Ash did not really give a verbal response, but he looked at Serena.

"H..huh?! What are y-"

Once again unable to finish her sentence, she got cut with Ash leaning into Serena. She was basically pushed onto a corner as she was on the end of the couch. The two faces were practically a few millimeters away. 

"t...too, TOO CLOSE!!!"

Serena revealed her true self as she pushed Ash back with both her hands. With both her eyes closed from pure embarrassment. Serena slowly opened her eyes to find what she did. And felt more flustered with what she did with her temperature rivaling global warming.

Suddenly Ash held one of Serena's hands with his own. He stared at it for a while, until he gave it a small kiss. Making Serena about to fully explode from the blushing she had. 

"Um...Ash" Serena wanted to talk but was cut off by Ash.

"So Serena...wanna try call me 'cute'...one more time,"

He was still holding her hand next to his face with a dreamy expression. 

"W-wait!  You heard-" interrupted again

"You know, Serena. I don't really like that word... it feels like you're underestimating me... and I'm nothing but a cute boy to you..."

"Maybe you don't really like me..."

"B-But I do!!!" Serena screamed as she got back some of her senses.

"I mean I'd still find you...um...cute...but o-of course I uhmm...w-well... " Serena's face blushed brighter as it was embarrassing to word out her emotions.

"Then tell me...I wanna hear you say it..." Ash said as he leaned into Serena again.

"I...I...um... I l-li-"

"THUD!!!!" The front door collapsed to find the group bunched up together as they had their heads on the door.

Seeing this Serena felt all her blushing reach the max as she fainted from the embarrassing things she said. While Ash was semi-blurry with him collapsing as well on top of Serena. The group smiled at the couple but some mischievous bunch.

Taking out their devices and took pictures of the two. In hopes the future to embarrass them to the end of time.

(Author's note: We hoped to release this on the day of Christmas but we wanted to have this early because of a different project we have cooking up soon. While I'm here I would like to thank everyone who had read and enjoyed this story. We are happy that you all enjoyed our work. And plus this is not the final chapter we promise)