Rigorous Relationships

On The Road Again

The group entered the restaurant and were seated at a window booth. After ordering their meals they began to talk amongst themselves. Within a few minutes their food arrived and Serena and Dena watched as the two boys began devouring everything in sight. In between bites the two lock eyes and a challenge is passed between them.

"You'll never beat me!" Ash declares before shoveling more food into his mouth.

"Dream on!" Cal responds and begins stuffing his face with an equal amount of food.

The girls watch this spectacle unfurl and began to eat their meals, giggling at their friends ravenous appetites. Serena smiled at her cousin before telling her that Cal had no chance of beating Ash.

"Care to put your money where your mouth is?" Dena challenged.

"Alright ₽20 says Ash leaves Cal in the dust!"

"And ₽20 says Cal wins!"

After making the bet they returned their attention back to the boys only to see that their competition was already over. Both boys were slumped over in pain. Yet when looking at their plates it was evident that Ash had won by one pice of pie. Dena begrudgingly slipped Serena a twenty as they went to comfort their sick friends.

"Told you you'd never beat me." Ash gloated before succumbing to the pain in his stomach once more. Cal was in a worse state and could only let out a low moan as a comeback to Ash's remark.

After a few minutes of their continued anguish Ash and Cal were able to get to their feet, with the help of Serena and Dena. They paid for their meals and walked out of the restaurant while being supported by the girls. Not really having a real destination they walked into a small plaza and rested on some nearby benches.

By now both boys have regained the ability to form coherent sentences. Serena seeing that he's doing better decides to asks the question she'd been holding in since she saw him.

"Ash what are you doing here and where have you been?"

The raven haired boy turned to her and plainly said that he'd been invited by the regions champion to participate in the upcoming Hoenn league championship. He chose to leave out the part involving the potential danger the region faced; not because he forgot but because he felt that letting others know could put them in more danger.

"I still have to battle all the gyms again, but once I win I'm going to conquer the Hoenn league and fulfill my dream of becoming a Pokémon master!" Ash said this with such gusto that they all believed he would do just that.

"Not so fast Ash," Cal said rising to stand in front of him, "If you want to win the Hoenn league your going to have to get past me first; I'm aiming to be the Hoenn league champion and I won't quit until I reach my dream!" He said this with a burning passion that rivaled Ash's.

Ash stood up and offered Cal his hand, "Then I expect to see you in the finals."

"Its a promise." Cal said accepting his newfound rivals hand.

"That's sweet boys but Ash still hasn't answered the second question." Dena said overly curious as to hear what her cousins crush had been up to. Ash smiled sheepishly and explained that he'd been training with his Pokémon at Professor Oaks lab for the last six months, and before that he'd been enrolled at a school in the Alola region.

"Now that you know a bit more about me I'd like to learn more about Serena's cousin, and her friend."

"Alright then my name is Dena Gain and I'm trying to be the worlds top coordinator with the help of my partner Torchic, " she released the fire chick Pokémon and displayed her to the group. "You've already met Cal and you know what he's doing here," after receiving a cheery nod from the navy haired boy Dena continued, "His full name is Callow Ren and we both grew up in Oldale town together."

Ash listen attentively while Dena continued with their backstory. Halfway through though his eyes wander to Serena who was gently stroking Pikachu's fur, he didn't know what drew his attention to her but whatever it was captivated him completely. It also caused his stomach to get tired up in knots, making him believe he was going to be sick. He politely excused himself ran off to find a restroom.

While Ash was indisposed Serena and the others began to discuss their plans of traveling the region. Dena seeing this as an opportunity to keep Cal by her side proposed the idea of all of them traveling together. The idea surprised Cal who had thought they would be traveling together anyways, and Serena was more than happy to stick around familiar faces.

The group chatted a bit more until Ash returned, they then introduced him to their plan thinking he would instantly go along with it.

"So what do you think Ash?" Serena said giddy with the anticipation of traveling with Ash again.

"I can't right now..." Ash said in a somber tone.

"What, why not!?

"I'm supposed to meet up with someone in a week or so and I don't want to force you guys to change your plans just so you can travel with me."

Dena realized that it would really hurt Serena if she had to leave Ash again and decided to take action.

"Well that's too bad Ketchum, we're going with you whether you want us to or not!"

Cal looked confused for a minute and foolishly asked, "We are?" Which earned him an assertive glare from Dena. "I mean of course we are, we'd never abandon a friend like that."

Realizing that they were set on following him Ash happily conceded to their will. "Then I guess we should head out, I'm supposed to meet them in Fallarbor town in about a week."

Serena took out her electronic map and found the meeting location, "If we want to get there in time we'll have to travel like so," she proceeded to draw an outline of the route they would travel and displayed it for the others to see.

Once they had agreed upon their travel route they split up began to gather supplies for the journey. A few minutes later they were all gathered at the northern exit of the city. With excitement in their eyes and hope in their hearts they took their first step towards the unknown trails that awaited them.

A friendly rivalry has grown between Ash and Cal, while Dena's fears of leaving Cal have been forgotten when the group makes plans to travel together. What does the future hold for our heroes? You'll have to stay tuned to find out, as the journey continues!

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First I wanted to thank everyone who has already voted on my story.
Second I just am still starstruck with how the anime ended, (The greatest Amour moment ever) and I am patiently waiting for anything that hints at Serena's return to the show.
Finally I wanted to say I'm going to try to get a chapter out every one to two weeks so don't get disappointed if the next chapter isn't out for a while. Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote and comment, until next time.