Heliotrope

Chapter 2: Apple Blossom

Dedicated to PearlOfSunnyFlight

It was the morning of October 12th, my nineteenth birthday. Ash and I had gotten married on the sixth of April that year. I woke up and he was still asleep, I knew he would have to get up soon for work. He was an assistant to a pokémon doctor, Brock. He came to the wedding and Ash had known him for a very long time. Brock was a nice guy, but I'll admit it didn't pay well.

I wasn't working at all at that point. I was looking for jobs, but it was almost like Ash didn't want me to work. Maybe it would bruise noe ego? I don't know.

Either way, he worked pretty late, long hours. I checked the time on the digital clock in our bedside table. Eight o'clock. I decided to climb out of bed, slip on my robe and make myself some breakfast.

I decided on some egg and toast. It was a new loaf. Ash always like to eat the crust and I usually gave in and let him have it. But it was my birthday! So I took it and ate it and laughed to myself.

I washed my plate and the few that were lying in the sink. Ash was so messy, it drove me up the wall. I knew he would be down, soon. I was getting giddy, wondering what he had gotten me. It would no doubt he sonethinh thoughtful and meaningful.

I turned on the tv in our small, grubby apartment in Kanto where we were living, now. Just earlier that year we had been in our wedding garbs in Vaniville Town. Nothing good was really on. I ended up watching some contest in Sinnoh somewhere. Now that I think of it, it might have even have had Ash's friend, Dawn, in it.

I missed my mum a lot, and Bonnie and Clemont. Ash and I still talked to Clemont a lot, though, of course. He would tell us about what Bonnie was getting up to in her quest to find him a wife and now incidentally a husband for herself. She was getting older, you see.

I suddenly felt a soft kiss on my cheek. "Ash!" I beamed.

"Morning, Serena." I was waiting for a happy birthday or a gift, but I didn't get one. He went to the bread, "You are the crust! Aw, but you know I love it!"

I smirked. "Well... I do... But as it's such a special day...?"

"A special day? Huh?" He scratched his tired head and yawned. Seriously? He was kidding. He has to be. This was my husband. Of course my husband wouldn't forget my birthday! That was preposterous! Especially with how long I'd known him.

"Ash, stop faking it." Growing bored of Sinnoh contests, I flicked the channel over. Something about some fifteen year old kid from Hoenn who thought he could talk to legendary pokémon. Ha! What a headcase. "Of course you know what day it is."

He poured himself a cup of coffee, "Sorry, babygirl, you're gonna have to help me out." He sounded real. He sounded like it wasn't a joke.

"Ash you know it's my birthday." I blurted out.

"What?" He'd forgotten? He'd actually forgotten his wife's birthday? "I thought that was next week."

"Nope. Today." I felt so undeniably hurt. I knew his birthday off by heart, I was sure of my love for him.

He looked crushed. "I'm so sorry, Serena." He held his face in his hands. "I'm so tired all the time, I don't know what day it is."

I understood. It was indeed true, he got little to no sleep. He probably didn't even know what date it was, and if he did he would have known. I couldn't be too hard on him, he was the only one bringing in the money, afterall. And I knew I loved him.

But still, I was his wife, and he had known me since we were kids. A part of me felt like he didn't care. But I tried my hardest to shrug it off. We were perfect. Because I was his wife. Not Misty or that darned May or Miette. Me. Serena Ketchum. I had won. We were a fairytale couple and my young and naïve mind was adamant we were going to get our happily ever after by any means possible.