Teach Me How to Love - amour

Chapter Ten - Two Paths

Humming along Serena took a large bite of her galette. She ripped off a piece and leaned down to feed Sylveon once the trainer and her Pokémon were a safe distance away from the North Boulevard. The two sat down on a short brick ledge surrounding a small urban garden and Serena pulled out her phone.
"It should only take twenty minutes to walk to the Gadget Festival. I think I already know the answer but it would be rude to not ask; would you rather stay at the Pokémon Center?" Sylveon nodded bashfully.
"Let's go then! You can join Pancham and Ash's Pokémon, I'm going to ask Braixen to come along."
The performer offered another chunk of galette to her Pokémon and they went on their way.

—♥︎—

"This is yummy Ash! Thanks for buying me one!"
Ash very well knew he had bought the treat for his other friend but decided against saying anything.
"So whattya wanna do Ashy? We have three hours until our reservation but I'll need an hour to make sure I look my best. Know of anything we can do around here in two hours?"
He pursed his lips. Only Gary Oak was allowed to call the boy 'Ashy', and that was because he didn't have a say in the matter.
"Huh? I thought you had an idea! You were the one to ask me to hang out in the first place!" Ash said in exasperation.
"Well, I don't. So get looking!" Same old Misty.
The raven haired boy sighed at his friend's attitude and pulled up a city map on his phone.
"I could show you Lumiose Press where my friend Alexa works, visit Professor Sycamore's lab, the Lumiose Museum-"
"What kind of things are at the museum?"
"I don't know, I've never been there."
"Let's go then!" Misty grabbed the male's hand forcefully and directed him to lead the way.
"It's a few minutes walk from here and right next to a hotel so it should be hard to miss."
"That's the hotel I'm staying at! You actually picked a good spot Ash, now I won't have go far to get back," the gym leader finished. Knowing the location now she dragged her friend down the boulevard.
"Why do you sound so surprised!"

"Lumiose Museum. Looks like admission is free but we can pay to have an audio tour, do you want to?" Ash said, reading a sign near the entrance to the building after the two had stepped inside.
"Of course I do, let's get the whole experience."
Ash paid for himself and stood by the counter to wait.
"Ash, you're supposed to pay for me too you know. That's what you do on a date!" Misty said with a sigh. That's weird, maybe I'll ask Serena about it later. She always offered to pay for herself but I guess that's because it was just practice. The somewhat confused boy paid for his date.
"Have a nice visit you two. Your Pikachu must stay on your shoulder at all times if not in its Pokéball for the safety of the art. Enjoy," the woman at the counter said after the awkward situation was resolved. Ash felt Misty grip his hand tighter and led him into the first exhibit. It was an awfully random time and day to be at the museum so the only people around seemed to be studying the paintings determinedly. The teens followed the audio guide playing on the speaker as each piece of art was explained with the artist, date, style, title, and a final overview. After half an hour the first exhibit came to and end. Ash sighed to himself knowing that he had to endure another hour and a half of it, but Misty seemed to be enjoying it at least. Remaining quiet and moving slowly was not on the list of the boy's many talents nor was it on his Pokémon's. Pikachu gave up and began napping on his trainer's shoulder ten minutes in.

—♥︎—

"Brai!"
"Just a few more minutes Braixen, I can see the tents from here!" Serena said to her partner. With Sylveon back at the Pokémon Center and Braixen at her side the blonde was nearly at the gate to the Gadget Festival.
"Clemont's panel doesn't start for another hour and I want to surprise him there. Why don't we look around until then?"
"Braixen brai!"
Serena took Braixen's hand and stepped through the entrance with a grin on her face. It was clear that after so many days had gone by people were still just as invested in the power of science as they always were. The performer looked around for a minute or so before coming across a small tent parked not far from the entrance gate.
"Excuse me miss, is this your first visit here?"
Snapping back to reality Serena turned to see a familiar face behind the booth.
"Hi Viola! What are you doing here?" the blonde said cheerfully.
"I'm here to take photos of the exhibits as well as the people here, but I'm taking Alexa's place for now. We're alternating between working at the information booth and reporting on and photographing the event! Alexa asked me for my help with the pictures for the article she wants to run so I was happy to step away from my gym for a few days."
"Wow, that sure sounds exciting. I'll be on the lookout for the article! To answer your question, yes, this is my first visit here. I'm hoping to see Clemont's exhibition in around an hour but I want to surprise him and Bonnie. Could you tell me where that is?"
"Of course! The showcase will be straight down this center path; you can't miss it. If you get lost at any point you can always find your way back to the entrance, though I'm sure anyone here will be glad to show you the way. Say, Serena, why isn't Ash with you?" Viola questioned. The teen felt her cheeks flare up at the mention of her friend and she pulled her hat lower down on her face.
"He's out on a date with an old friend of his. She's visiting from Kanto," she sighed.
"That's a shame, I thought you two had something going. Well, have fun at the festival Serena!" the gym leader said with a knowing smile.
"Thanks Viola, I'm sure I will. You ready to get on with this Braixen?"
"Brai!"
Viola could've sworn she heard the performer mumble something about wishing she did have something going before her and her Pokémon were out of hearing range. She chuckled and returned to her book to wait for any newcomers to arrive.

"'Choose from a variety of options to create your very own Poképuff in only a minute!' Science really is amazing! Why don't we each make one?" the performer asked after reading off a description card. There was an electronic panel in front of the display that listed the options including flavor, icing type, and choice of berry. Serena selected spicy and a scale appeared on the screen. She didn't have time to decipher the meaning as Braixen leaned over and slid the bar to reach maximum heat. Her trainer giggled and stepped back to let her choose for herself. After the fire type had settled for a spicy, heated red frosting, cheri berry topped Poképuff she hit Start. Braixen bounced on the balls of her feet for an agonizing minute until the Poképuff popped out and landed on a plate that zoomed by on a conveyor belt just in time.
"Brai braixen!"
Serena giggled again and began scrolling through the options on the panel. A minute of deliberation and a minute of waiting later and a sweet pink treat followed the same path as the previous Poképuff. They headed in the direction Viola had pointed previously, eating their desserts on the way.

Clemont's panel had been even better than Serena was expecting. He'd informed the impressively large crowd to stay tuned for a surprise at the end and dove into demonstrations of his most recent projects, along with the ones that had been proven to work already. Among these were the design plans for a cost effective machine that could make custom Pokéballs that were compatible with seals, a machine that could read a book and put it into a summary with options for quizzes, and of course, a demonstration of his famous Aipom Arm with Bonnie as the test subject. The secret project turned out to be blueprints for some renovations to Prism Tower. He planned to create a system that would capture extra electricity from battles in his gym to power the other locations in the tower with the remainder feeding into the Lumiose Power Plant. The crowd was pleased, but not as pleased as Clemont and Bonnie were to see Serena when she surprised them after the panel.

a/n: this is sort of a filler chapter. i want to end this book soon so the chapters may get shorter (like this one was) because i don't want to drag it on too much. the next chapter will not include the date itself but will be ash recalling it to serena. you'll have to read for yourself when i publish it ;)