A Dream, A Destiny

Destiny rebirth

Serena POV

Sure, Ash was stepping on my toes pretty much every chance he got. Although, judging by the look of intense concentration on his face, he wasn't doing it on purpose, but even that rather significant factor couldn't stop me from staring dumbly into his gorgeous, deep brown, orb eyes as, with a deathly serious look on his face, he murmured, "In that case, I could be your soul mate."

To my credit, I didn't sag in his arms, faint, or do anything ridiculous as he said this. All I could do was control my breathing and try not to hyperventilate as he continued, his bare hands caressing my back slowly against my skin.

"And you wouldn't even know it."

I blinked so hard I was sure I was creating a draft with my eyelashes, willing myself to look anywhere but at Ash's close lips. Because if I was his soul mate and I didn't know what would stop me from grabbing him and kissing him silly? The fact that you're in the middle of a dance floor at a swanky hotel filled with rich and important people, stupid.

Oh yeah. Right.

A wickedly hot smile turned up from the corners of Ash's mouth as he leaned ever closer to me, his warm breath fanning my red cheek as he whispered, making eye contact for as long as we can."You could be my soul mate" in my ear.

Deep breath!

I suddenly narrowed my eyes, reality setting in quicker than usual, which meant that Ash and his odd ways of holding a conversation, not that I was one to talk when it came to oddness. Which didn't faze me that much anymore.

Still, despite the solemn look on Ash's face, I knew that he was obviously just laughing at my gullibility behind his poker face. I needed one of those because I was sure that the longing expression on my face when Ash had started talking about his views regarding soul mates was still there, which made me pathetic, especially since Ash was obviously just playing around. Stupid Sere falls for yet another of Ash Ketchum's ploys?

I smiled grimly to myself in a serious manner. Not this time. I had a couple of things up my non-existent sleeves, too. The way I saw it, payback was a ho. And Ash deserved payback after the whole 'I love you' incident way back in high school. He was just trying to get your attention, Serena. Be that as it may, it was my turn to play with his head.

Smiling up at him with my chin up, I locked my fingers behind Ash's neck, strands of his spike raven hair running through my fingers as we dance slow with music playing on in right volume and various people around us continued dancing with their own partners.

"You think we could be soul mates?" I asked in a carefully reflective tone, marveling at how normal my voice sounded. Even though I knew that Ash was just joking, just thinking about us being soul mates... Well, don't think of it, then.

Ash grinned, shaking the hair out of his eyes so that he could look at me better. "Why not? We get along, we compliment each other's styles beautifully, and you're the perfect height for a guy like me to..."

His voice trailed off as he gazed down at me, a twinkle in his eye. Biting the inside of my cheek, I wanted to ask 'perfect height for what?' but decided not to. I also decided to ignore the fact that he seemed to be staring at my glossed parted-lips, because I had to be imagining that. Had to be.

Feeling slightly rattled, all I could come up with was a sluggish respond, "Oh, really?"

Why, oh why, did I even go the soul mate route? Damn that Enrique song, bringing out my soppy side. Ash seemed to have taken the topic and ran with it, evidently electing to forget about what we had been discussing before 'Suddenly' started to play and I decided to put my two cents in. What had we been talking about before the song came on? How his dad had taken it upon himself to ruin what would have been a perfect night if I had been related to Sawyer Yvonne.