The room dropped into an unearthly silence. The only sounds were from the creaky fan and the crickets chirping outside. Iris decided to make the first move.
"Don't take the letter too seriously, your highness" she reassured "They can say whatever they want, but the fact remains that you will be very capable as a king"
"Yes, your highness, Iris is right" Misty joined in "We don't even know who the letter is from"
Ash mumbled a quiet "Yeah" and placing the letter on the table, he walked out of the room.
The castle wasn't asleep. Even though the Sun had set two hours ago, there were many maids and butlers roaming around and the guards were doubled. Ash snorted, what did they think; the letters had some sort of poison in them. Well the letters did have poison, just not the ones that would kill you.
He reached for the door, but was stopped before he could open it. "This came for you, your highness".
"I don't want it" he replied, not bothering to look at the butler "You can put it in the trash with the other letters from Hoenn"
"Ash?"
The butler and the addressed looked up to see Serena standing at the door. She looked worried and was looking at him straight in the eye.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"I'm your personal maid, Ash" she answered "If you're awake, then I'll stay awake"
"Did she just call you by your name, your highness? " the butler asked.
"Yes, she did. I told her to do so" The butler nodded; he stepped in between the two of them and placed the letter in Ash's hand. "This letter addresses you by your name too, your highness"
He looked at the pink envelope. It was closed with a bear sticker and on flipping it over, he saw the words
'To Ash, my best-est friend'
"I'll take leave, your highness" the butler said and bowing slightly, he left. Ash went up to his desk and opened the letter up. The paper in it was baby pink and was written with a pencil. Before he could begin, Serena spoke up -
"Dear Ash, it's me Serena here. I wanted to know how you were doing. You probably have tons of friends right now, don't you? You know what I'm sure you do. That means you must be very happy, you're probably smiling. Well, I'm really happy for you."
Ash glanced down at the paper in his. His eyes widened. She had recited the letter's first paragraph with a word to word accuracy. She was standing right at the door, eyes downcast and her honey-blonde hair was covering her face, keeping it entirely out of view.
"Serena..."
But she wasn't done "But you see, I'm not exactly happy and I can't smile. I've been trying to smile but I end up crying all the time. Weird, right? I guess I should be allowed to cry. Would you cry if your Mommy and Daddy disappeared? Mine did. And that was a few months ago and I've been waiting for them ever since. I have a feeling they won't come back though."
He was reading the letter the whole entire time she was speaking and like the last time she had gotten it down to every single word.
"It was a month after my birthday and they had gone out to get some groceries" she replied, slowly stopping her sweeping "I had just turned eight"
"They never came back"
He blinked. This story was the exact same one. Before he could even comprehend the creepy similarity another memory popped up.
"That wasn't a very good start, but I really really want to be friends with you. So let's start from the beginning. Let's pretend like this never happened, 'kay?"
"Okay I'll begin" Ash said "My name is Ash, I'm Kanto's second prince and I'm 6 years old"
"Nice to meet you, Ash" the girl smiled "My name is Serena, I'm the only child of the Yvonne nobility and I'm 6 years old"
"I don't know what to do anymore Ash. My neighbour is this really sweet old lady and she's taking care of - "
"You don't need to continue" Ash interrupted. He went up to her and lifted her head up. She was crying.
"Promise that you'll catch me"
"I promise"
"Okay". Closing her eyes, Serena let her body loose and slowly fell off the bench she was standing on , right into Ash's open arms.
The force and the weight was something which Ash hadn't expected; when she landed, it knocked him off balance and the two of them toppled onto the grass. The eight-year olds got up and dusted the dry grass off their clothes.
Serena shot a fake glare at Ash "I thought you said you would catch me" she pouted "But you didn't"
Ash fake glared back at her, "It was because you were heavy". Then the two of them burst out laughing.
Meeting an old friend was usually a moment of happiness and bliss, but meeting them in such uncomfortable circumstances and then finding out that they have been suffering since they left; the very thought of it clammed up Ash's throat. His words were very croaky.
"You're the same girl from the letter, aren't you?" he asked "And you're the same girl from my childhood. Right?"
"Yes Ash" she sniffed "I am the same girl"
A/N----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misty: WHY ON EARTH AM I CALLING ASH 'YOUR HIGHNESS'???!!?!?
Iris: YEAH! WHOSE FRIGGING IDEA WAS THIS???!?!?!!?
I was cringing so much when I made Misty and Iris call him 'your highness'. It just seemed so OOC.
btw - next is a special Serena's POV chapter. Till then, Sayonara.
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Everything's Fair in Love and War - An Amourshipping story
FanfictionWar. Hate. Grudges. As a prince, Ash had experienced every single bit of it. Except he got everything from a place he was forced to call home. Ash almost concluded that his life was going to end like the hell it was now. Almost. Entering in as a...
